


Matter

by BRobeast



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-05-24 23:22:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 69,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14964183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BRobeast/pseuds/BRobeast
Summary: The production and perfection of Androids in the modern world had taken off allowing a new age of industry to blossom. Matthew Holt and Lance McClain are employees at an Android Tech company known as Rebel Tech. It is business as usual...until a familiar face continues to appear in the repairs department.  Matt and Lance begin to wonder if there is more at work than Galra Industries is letting on and find themselves in more trouble than they ever bargained for.





	1. Ghosting

A man was staring up at him. There was a small black box held in his hand attached to a long black cable that was…

_attached to me?_

“There we go!”

_Matthew Holt._  
Rebel Tech: Program Engineer  
Weakness: Injured Knee.  
Wingspan:183cm  
Mentality: Unknown 

It flickered before him on the air in a box. At the top left, next to the clean text, was a picture of a man. Striking amber eyes and a bright smile beamed out from a messy mop of fawn colored hair. It looked like it could have been pulled from some kind of an ID card. On his left cheek was some sort of mark...a scar. He could feel his eyes shift from the picture to the man in front of him.

The same.

This was Matthew Holt.

“Hey, man! How are you feeling?”

How was he feeling? He didn’t _feel_ much at all. Everything seemed fine…that was good.

“Fine.”

Matthew smiled, that was good, and he raised a hand to ruffle something ontop of his head...hair. He felt his own eyes lift, trying to get a visual on it, but only managing to catch one or two strands of white…

It was his hair....but it was not like Matthew’s hair...

“Fine seems pretty on par with the diagnostics. So, that’s great to hear. You took a beating man. I don’t know anything about sports, but I’ve never seen a boxing android...y’know...so jacked up. Terabytes of memory just needed to be totally reconfigured. So, sorry you don’t...remember anything really... ”

A beat passed between them. Matthew seemed to be looking at him, waiting for something, but when the conversation didn’t continue he simply looked back at the little black box.

“Alright buddy. I just programmed your name back in. Help me out on uh...the pronunciation...this is also another one of our diagnostic tests,” he laughed, “no pressure.”

“Takashi Shirogane.”

“Nice.” Matthew hummed, mostly to himself.

Takashi’s focus shifted away from the programmer typing away on his little black box to the layout of the room he found himself in. It was all sharp corners, white plastics, and clean glass. He could see...parts; Green boards with tiny casings, tubes, wiring, long tendrils of some sort of white cable. It was so _thin_. On a far table was a white drape with blueberry colored fingerprints placed so scarcely that whoever left them must have been trying to minimize the mess. 

Something laid beneath it- oddly shaped.

When Takashi felt his eyes shifting, rolling in easy sockets to look back at Matthew, that marbled amber color was already staring back. He looked uneasy.

The way he chewed his lip confirmed he was uneasy.

“Sorry,” he apologized, but Takashi wasn’t sure for what,”your arm was pretty bad off…”

His thoughts whirred in his head. Clicked into place. Matthew must have seen him looking at the drape. Androids- his “blood” was Thirium 310...it was blue. He was apologizing because under that drape was Takashi’s arm. 

Interesting.

“I...uh...I didn’t want you to wake up and see it. That’d be pretty fucked up...so I just….uh….covered parts and-“

“Why is that pretty fucked up?”

Matthew blinked, caught off guard, but laughed.

“Cool. I’m already adding some fun new linguistics for your guys to deal with. Um...I dunno. Maybe it’s just me, but I work on your guys’ brains enough that I…” he paused, his eyes shifting like he was unsure if he should continue with what was to follow.

“Uh- sometimes I think androids are better than most humans. So, uh...I just think it’s wrong- how people treat androids, I mean. I’m not about to wave your parts around in front of you like you don’t matter.”

He looked so uncomfortable. Why?

Matthew set to picking at the rubber washer that sat at the top of his black box, not looking up at Takashi. There was an indicator somewhere in the back of the programs he was running chiming for his attention. He ignored it. 

“It’s...probably stupid...you may not even care that you matter….but I like to think you do.”

Takashi wasn’t sure how he was “feeling,” as Matthew had put it, or if it even was a feeling so much as just information, but he just didn’t want him to look so sad.

“It’s not stupid.”

Matthew looked up from his box at that, his eyes wide in a sort of shock, before his expression melted into a soft smile.

“Trying to make me feel better?”  
“What is “Black”?”  
“The color?” A quizzical look from his engineer. 

No, he knew the color black. This was….something else….

“It makes me….want you to feel better….” Takashi worked it out as he spoke, his words half in question.

“.....Whoa……” something lit in Matthews eyes, it looked like fire, like a spark, and he could see the fingers wrapped around the black box twitch like they’d been promised something, “......that’s your Operating System, buddy.”

Takashi watched him in silence as Matthew thumbed away at something on the box.

“You’re gonna have to excuse me talking to you like you’re a computer, but that’s...basically all our brains are...we just have different words to use-”

“I got you covered, sir! Be riiiight back!” 

Takashi looked up from Matthew as the door on the far wall of their room swung open. A tall, thin, frame slid into the room, calling over his shoulder to someone on the other side of the wall. Takashi’s eyes went to work. 

_Lance McClain._  
Rebel Tech: Sales Associate  
Weakness: Weak center of gravity.  
Wingspan:179.8cm  
Mentality: Unknown 

In the picture Lance had longer hair than what he was currently sporting. It looked like he may have been growing it out, but the hair was just caught in a awkward, long, bowl cut style. Thick, brown curls flicked in a variation of directions, framing a thin face, with a drastic jawline. Blue eyes peered out from the mop of hair and below them a smile so wide, and so bright, it was almost startling in comparison to the soft brown tones around it. 

“Hey, Matt,” Takashi looked back to the physical manifestation of Lance McClain as he scuttled his way closer to him and Matthew, arms crossed in front of his chest, “you almost done helping this guy?”

Matt was still typing away furiously on his black box. 

Lance stayed quiet for a few moments until the realization that he might as well have not existed started to creep across his features.

“Dude!” Came Lance’s exasperated response to being ignored, “I’ve got a customer asking about his guy. This guy.”

Takashi blinked, watching as a tanned thumb was flicked his way in a detached silence. Matthew seemed to be coming back to earth, but it wasn’t fast enough for McClain, who had started waving his hand in front of Matthew’s eyes. 

“Is he alright? Can I take him up?”

“Uuuh, yeah,” Matthew looked up to Shiro, who starred right back,”Yeah! Yeah, he’s all set. I was just...re-checking.”

“Well, my man, you always do great work, real bang up job,” Lance cooed, stepping up onto the platform Takashi had been standing on, and taking the android by the hand, “Always 5 star ratings. You’re wonderful. Fantastic.”

“Geez, your retail voice is so gross…”

“Right? I don’t even know who that bitch is,” Lance replied quickly, before continuing on like Matthew had never spoken,“-And currently holding me up on my job because you’re just a silly goose and feel like you need to recheck.”

“Silly goose?” Matthew laughed, leaning his weight back onto his good leg, and crossed his arms. Amber eyes watched as Lance led Takashi towards the door with an easy smile on his lips.

“Yeah, I said it.”

Takashi felt the meat of his cheeks pull up into a smile as he looked between the two men. Matthew must have noticed because the smile on his face only grew wider as he regarded Takashi, who was walking a normal pace despite the over anxious Lance trying to double step him towards the door. 

“See you around, Takashi!” Matthew called with a wave, but then, “Oh! I mean- hopefully I don’t. Not here! Because then you’d be...in a bad way, but I mean- y’know around!”

Takashi nodded, having understood the nuance of “see you around” without it needing to be laid out for him. 

“He knows what you mean!” Lance shouted, before pausing at the door. He took a breath and then scanned his hand on a pad on the right side of the door. It slid open with a quiet hiss, revealing a bright showroom floor just beyond a pristine countertop that was directly in front of them from the door. 

Two faces stood quietly, their attention immediately on Lance and Takashi as they stepped through. 

Something felt...wrong…

_Sayid Zarkon._  
Galra Industries: CEO  
Weakness: ////DISABLED////  
Wingspan://///DISABLED/////  
Mentality://///DISABLED//// 

The picture that arrived beside the text in Takashi’s peripheral was far more professional than Matthew’s and Lance’s. Mr. Zarkon had been in a sharply fitted suit ,with his salt and pepper hair gelled back neatly, and a stern look on his face. His shoulders were too wide to fit fully into the frame and as compensation he’d been set at a three quarter view. 

Takashi looked to the woman beside him. 

_Honerva ////DISABLED////_  
Galra Industries: ////DISABLED////  
Weakness: ////DISABLED////  
Wingspan:////DISABLED////  
Mentality:////DISABLED//// 

The way she looked at him made him feel something. 

He could hear his OS rumbling in his head.

This didn’t feel right. 

—————————————

“...man what the hell….” the voice sounded familiar, but everything was black. 

“...right…? Something isn’t right, Lance...” Another familiar voice.

“Matthew?” His own voice.

“Yeah, buddy it’s me. Here. Give me a tick and I’ll have your visuals up. Just...hang in there.”

“Okay.”

Takashi felt his memory fizz, working away at the last time he’d seen Matthew and the circumstances of it. He felt his eyes widen which was disconcerting. He expected to be able to see- especially armed with the knowledge that his eyes had been open the entire time. 

He was “”in a bad way.”

Again.


	2. Sleep Awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The familiar face of Takashi Shirogane (a boxing Andorid sponsored by Galra Industries) returns to Rebel Tech in need of some curious repairs. Matthew and Lance wrestle with their growing suspicions- amoung other things.

“It hasn’t even been a month,” he heard a voice mumble quietly.

“Like I don’t know that?!” Matthew’s voice. He knew that voice, “This doesn’t look like boxing...something isn’t right over there.”

Over where?

“You think Zar-“

“Dude, shut up. He’s got audio capability. I don’t want to send him home with a record they can pull up.”

“Oh...sorry….is that what that wiggling bar thing is? Is that my voice?”

“Yeah.”

“Heeee **LLLLLLLLLLL** llllll _oooooo_ OW! DID YOU JUST HIT ME!?”

“Lance! You’re screwing up my configuration!”

“Oh, I’ll screw up your configuration. Configuration of your _face_ ” Takashi knew it was Lance’s voice now

He remembered him- mostly he remembered wild, curly hair, but that led his mind to Lance by association.

“OW!”

“OW!”

“OW! WHAT THE FUCK, LANCE!?”

“PULLING HAIR, MATT!?”

“I’M TRYING TO GET OUR GUY UP AND RUNNING HERE! DO YOU FREAKING _MIND_ , YOU CHILD!?”

Visuals enabled. He could tell because now when he felt his eyes were open Takashi was met with the visual of Matthew, once again clinging to his little black box, and Lance half climbing up Matthew’s left side. Somehow Lance managed to hook a knee behind Matthew’s neck, his other knee dug into the dip of the engineer’s hip, keeping him elevated.

Takashi felt his mouth shift, followed by the tell tale push of flesh into the corners of his peripherals.

“Aw, look. He’s happy to see us!” Lance chirped, untangling himself from Matthew’s shoulder.

“I am,” Takashi laughed quietly.

Lance stood bedside Matthew with a wide, warm, smile looking up at Takashi, hands on his hips. Matthew had a soft smile pulling the right side of his mouth up at the corner and fumbled his thumbs along the screen of his black box.

“We’re happy to see you too,” the emotion didn’t seem to make it fully into Matt’s voice. He sounded sad again, “just wish it was under better circumstances…”

Takashi raised his arms, expecting one to be missing again (data showed it was missing the last time he’d been sent to Matthew),but they were both present. There was a stark difference between his left and right arm. This was due to the fact that his left arm still had the artificial flesh around it. Mr.Zarkon didn’t see a reason to spend the extra money on recoating an entire arm when Takashi worked just fine without it.

So, he wasn’t in a bad way...at least not as bad as last time…

“What happened?” Takashi asked, frowning. He tried to pull up memory of being broken again, but gained nothing- aside from blank space.

“Dunno, buddy…” Lance answered, sounding equal parts sad and concerned.

“We know a couple things,” Matthew started, setting the black box down on the pristine, white, desktop at his right hip, “you’re not totally wiped clean this time. Looks like most of the damage was superficial. The damage to your face was low enough that the Forward Compartment wasn’t knocked around too bad.”

“Forward...Compartment?” Takashi questioned slowly, understanding, but not entirely sure why.

“Yeah, man. Remember when I said our brains are basically computers?”

Takashi shook his head. Matthew frowned.

“Uh.. _well_...our brains are basically computers. There’s just different words. So, humans: we have Frontal Lobes. Androids have Forward Compartments. Those get smashed around in either of us and there is a ton of shitty problems. Memory loss- for one,” he counted on his fingers, “impulse control- for two,” he held up a third finger, but stopped.

“Listen...I don’t want to depress you…with stuff that’s not even the problem this time...”

Takashi couldn’t get depressed. It wasn’t in his programming.

He needed information for that statement to make sense.

 _Matthew Holt._  
Rebel Tech: Program Engineer  
Weakness: Injured Knee.  
Wingspan:183cm  
Mentality: Warm

That was different. Warm: he cared about how Takashi would feel. More specifically he cared how he would feel if he wasn’t just an android. That was...

 

 

 

 

 

Nice

 

 

 

 

 

Matthew looked nervous and turned his attention to Lance, trying to find reprieve from Takashi’s gaze. Lance’s hands slipped from his hips and he nodded solemnly, looking back up at Takashi.

“...what’s the problem?” He asked, not entirely sure he wanted to know the answer with the way Lance and Matthew kept looking at him.

Two pairs of sad eyes stared up at him.

Silence.

Why wouldn’t they tell him?

The mechanics deep in his head stirred to life.

 _Lance McClain._  
Rebel Tech: Sales Associate  
Weakness: Weak center of gravity.  
Wingspan:179.8cm  
Mentality: Warm

Takashi’s frown deepened even further.

Lance broke whatever silent pact he and Matthew had made with their eyes not to give in and walked off to a desk at the right side of the room. He picked up something, cradling it in his hands, his fingers holding it tightly to his chest like he’d been afraid to give it up.

Matthew watched him with his lips set in a thin, tight, line, but never made any inclination he would stop him. Takashi felt something settle heavy inside of him- what had been so wrong with him?

Dark eyes followed Lance until he slowly came to a stop in front of Takashi. He looked at the object in Lance’s hands, tilting his head to the side in order to get a better perspective.

It was a mirror.

That was good. He could see himself with a mirror.

“Listen,” Matthew finally spoke up, placing his hand over Lance’s to create more distance between the mirror and the Android staring curiously at it, “it might freak you out. You don’t have a concept of _you_ existing- like physically. As an identity. And if we add the damage...I don’t know if that’s safe right now. I haven’t finished recalibrating everything and-“

“I want to see. I need information so I can understand.”

Lance moved his arms trying to extend the mirror to Takashi, but Matthew pushed the hands back to his chest. He held them there with the hand he’d laid down.

“I know you want to understand. It just might be a kind shocking? Do you see what I’m saying?” Matthew persisted.

Takashi’s chest burned. It was something sudden and prickly. That didn’t seem right. Maybe Matthew had a point. The last time Takashi found himself in this room nothing felt strange. There were no weights or burning just….nothing. It was just the quiet whir of his biomechanics and the information in his head.

He just….he needed to know.

He needed more information.

“I understand,” that wasn't correct. He didn’t understand. That’s what was so...so….,”but I need more information.”

Amber burned into him, set in narrowed eyes, and beneath a furrowed brow. Matthew was; Angry. No, it wasn’t angry. It was something else. The hand over Lance’s tightened, beat up fingers flexing, just slightly, at the knuckles. He looked so sure he knew what would happen- even if it was a scenario that deviated so grossly from the norm.

“Matthew?” Takashi needed. More. Information.

The engineer didn’t waver at first, but after the silent plead that passed between them, he relented. Matthew groaned loudly, throwing his hands up to grab at his own hair, effectively freeing Lance from his prison. He stepped over to the desk housing his little black box and dropped both of his hands onto the countertop, pushing his weight into his palms as he stood.

“Fine.” He grumbled.

Lance looked confused, blue trained on the slumped figure of Matthew against the unforgiving desk, before they turned to look up at Takashi. He looked even more unsure now, but resolved enough to slowly hold his hand out to Takashi, offering up the mirror.

Takashi took it in his hand, the smooth alloy of his fingers clicking against the plastic housing of the mirror. His eyes shifted in their sockets. First, to Matthew who glowered up at him with a mix of frustration and pity. Then, to Lance who had been anxiously picking at his own fingers, his teeth worrying his bottom. He’d been watching Takashi in a tense silence.

Slowly, Takashi raised the mirror up. He watched the room around him slide by in the glass in reverse until he’d seen white hair. The hair Matthew had ruffled last time. His movements jerked to a stop. Matthew stood up straighter beside the desk, watching Takashi with his breath caught in his throat, and Lance stepped back a foot or two.

He’d never seen himself- or at least didn’t remember seeing himself.

How would he know what was different?

Something felt tight in his chest. Matthew was right. He needed to recalibrate. He shouldn’t look just yet.

Regardless, his eyes wandered along the reflection in the mirror. Takashi watched the way the housing for the lights in the ceiling wavered with the movement of his hand. He looked back at the hair and beyond the longer strands of white towards the front of his head Takashi could see shorter tufts of a natural black. They barely stuck out over the lip of his mirror, but it was enough to push him forward.

The hair on his head was two toned and that didn’t seem right. He looked up from the mirror and over to Matthew, an eyebrow raised to convey the confusion he was having trying to fit two and two together.

“The last time you were here...something clocked you in the Forward Compartment,” Matthew tapped the top of his forehead for illustration, “the blow had been so bad it messed up the fiber cables for your hair.”

Takashi was following, but Lance looked like Matthew had been speaking a language he didn’t understand. Matthew must have caught it when he looked to his co-worker because he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger.

“The pigment in Android hair is carried through a series of refractive lenses in the fiber. Color is just variations of light, but without the light running through it the strands are basically like polar bear hair. It’s basically…eeeeeuuuhhhh-“ he squeezed his eye shut in thought, “Fiber Optics!”

“Yeah, but like...isn’t that old as hell….and stiff? and doesn’t that stuff _glow_?” Lance asked, looking more confused despite Matthew’s explanation.

“ _Like_ fiber optics,” he repeated, “anyway, the refractive bits were completely crushed close to the scalp. So, the light doesn’t travel anymore. I could fix it for you, but….uh….no one payed to...so….”

“You look angry.” Takashi blinked, registering.

There was a beat of silence that passed between the three of them. Lance’s eyes were trained on the mirror still held in Takashi’s hand. He could see it out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his focus on Matthew- who had been chewing the inside of his cheek.

Matthew let a long hiss of hair escape his nose, his mouth still set in the same thin line.

“I am, but not at you.” It was simple and honest.

“.....oh……” Takashi replied slowly, ignoring the way Black rumbled in the depths of his head, before tilting the mirror further towards himself.

Eyes stared back at him. His eyes.

They were a honey-d brown so deep that when the mirror shook against his fingers they almost appeared black at points.

They looked...surprised.

Then they were gone.

The mirror in Takashi’s hands lowered to his own chest this time. He could feel himself shaking, but he didn’t know from what. His eyes- brown, or black, or whatever they were shifted to Matthew who looked worried. Lance looked scared and Takashi could understand that because he was-

“I’m scared.” He whispered, his voice reverberating back to him against bare, clean, white, walls. It sounded so small.

“Are...are androids supposed to feel that?” Came Lance’s breathless inquiry.

“No.” Came Matthew’s controlled reply.

Matthew frowned and Lance moved to gently take the mirror, trying to relieve Takashi of that burden, but the Android only held it closer to his chest. Lance let his arm fall back to his side, but stayed at arms length.

“You’re okay, buddy. We’re here.” The wiry sales associate sounded so sure of that.

Matthew looked like he might be sick. The engineer stayed silent and that seemed to waver Lance’s confidence some.

Takashi nodded, choosing to ride Lance’s false confidence in the situation long enough to fully pull his reflection into the reflective glass. The overhead lights disappeared, crowded out by the full view of Takashi’s own face and everything froze.

 

_This is me._

 

Matthew didn’t move, he barely took in full breaths. Lance was fidgeting nervously, but his chest had been too still to betray any actual breathing motions.

 

Takashi lifted a hand, running a finger over the length of a mark that ran horizontal to his nose. A scar? It was like Matthew’s cheek, but it wasn’t the same. It didn’t look like skin healed...like it knit back together with immature fibers. It looked closer to a burn- like it was cauterized. A wound melted together.

Everything else just fell away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_This is me._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 _This_ is _me._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“W _h_ a _t_ h _a_ p _p_ e _n_ e _d_ t _o_ m _e?_ ”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**”TAKASHI!”**

 

**”HOLY SHIT MATT! WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO!?”**

 

**”I CAN’T                             BREATHE”**

 

**”WHAT HAPP _ENED TO ME!? WHAT HA_ PPENED TO ME!?”**

 

**”WE DON’T KNOW! WE DON’T KNOW! I’M SORRY! MATT FUCKING MIME SOMETHING! _ANYTHING!!_ DUDE I CAN’T LET YOU GET MURDERED RIGHT NOW MAN!**

**BOX?**

**THIS BOX?!”**

 

And then everything just

 

f  
 e  
   l  
    l  
     a  
      w  
       a  
        y

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, computers and identity crisis. Chapter three should be up quick! So, some more clarification on this little breakdown to come. Thank you everyone for the support with all the comments! And kudos! You seriously have no idea how much it means! 
> 
> Excited for this next chapter!


	3. Chasing Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew and Lance discover something interesting on Takashi’s diagnostics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well you guys, I spent forever coding up Shiro’s diagnostic coding so that it would look like python coding aaaaaaaand then found out either AO3 doesn’t let you do that- or I still don’t know how to code on here to make it work. SO, I got stuck with some seriously underwhelming text. I’m sorry for the lack of coolness on what I thought should have been pretty neat.
> 
> *there’s a little Easter egg in here from (one of my favorite authors on AO3) Eilera’s “This isn’t a Procedural Cop Show”

“Matt, I just don’t think it’s a good idea...”

 

“It’s fine. It’s not his fault.”

 

“FINE?! He _choked_ you!”

 

Takashi frowned.

 

“Ohshi- can he hear me!?”

 

“Technically he always ‘hears’ you,” Matthew’s voice sounded hoarse, “look at this…”

If Takashi had choked him, like Lance said, the strain in his voice made sense. The logic registered, but he didn’t remember hurting Matthew….he would have remembered hurting him. Wouldn’t he? He checked; There was no data outside of seeing himself in the mirror. An ache shot through his chest and the pain of it lingered.

“Matthew…” Takashi croaked past the squeeze of guilt in his throat.

He had no visuals again. He kept his eyes closed this time, unable to force the aching down. The distress must have been obvious- he felt their eyes on him.

“Hey, buddy. You’re alright...one tick and you’re back here with us.” Matthew answered.

Takashi could hear the smile in his voice and it _hurt_.

Something shuffled. It must have been Lance. The sound was farther away than Matthew’s voice. He didn’t blame him for staying back after what he did. Takashi found some comfort in the notion that he wasn’t the only one wishing he wasn't standing an arms length away, afraid that whatever glitch had led to him assaulting someone he never wanted to hurt would simply surface again and-

///Visuals Enabled///

The white room was back. He blinked, letting his eyes adjust to the lighting, before looking down at the engineer in front of him. His neck already sported bruises. There were deep purple streaks where Takashi’s fingers had met, pinching soft flesh between alloy skeleton.

“... _look_ at this.” Matthew insisted again, pushing the familiar black box into Lance’s chest.

Takashi’s eyes followed the cord. It was still attached to him.

The sales associate fumbled with the box for a moment, working long, thin, fingers around the plastic casing, and peered down into the screen. Takashi leaned forward from where he stood before the two men, trying to get a look, and frowned when Lance jumped in his own skin.

 

 

 

 _Lance McClain._  
Rebel Tech: Sales Associate  
Weakness: Weak center of gravity.  
Wingspan:179.8cm  
Mentality: Wary

 

 

 

Something, somewhere deeper than his physical form could possibly possess, Takashi felt something breaking. Dark eyes panned up from Lance and over to Matthew. He couldn’t bring himself to analyze him. The curiosity, the need for the information, burned in his manufactured skull, but the fear of that breaking feeling had stopped him from pursuing it.

Takashi looked to the screen of the black box instead. With the angle that Lance held it there was only a small portion, at the top of the screen, that was visible. Further down the beam from the overhead lights bounced off the screen, whiting it out.

 

 

 

CurrentStatus = green

While current status is not “Red” :

”what would you like to do?”  
Action == “Scan”

print ”Galra Gladiator: {1} \n Allies: {0} \n Weapons: {1}”

Action == ”Analyze Weapon”  
print ”Weapon = Bladed Tonfa: {100%}”

Action == ”Run to Bladed Tonfa”  
Action == ”Equip”  
print ”You have now equipped Bladed Tonfa”

print ”Galra Gladiator Charges”  
”Galra Charges. What would you like to do?”

Action == ”Analyze Situation”  
print ” Attack: 28% Success. \n Block: 8% \n Parry: 94% \n Run: 43%”

 

 

 

“What the heck is this? Like a video game?” Lance asked, his nose scrunched up at the bridge.

He’d noticed Takashi reading over the screen and offered up the black box for him to see. It felt like a peace offering. The fact that Lance had fought himself not to flinch away when their fingers brushed in the hand off was….reassuring.

Maybe Takashi could fix this.

“....It’s like a memory…” Matthew explained, stepping back up to Takashi, and gently lifting the box from his hands. Takashi had barely gotten more than a line down on the string of coding.

“You can….see my memories?” Takashi asked, his arm still half extended, hand reaching for the black box that Matthew had swiftly placed on his desktop.

“Well, yeah. You’re always recording and it’s saved to a sort of hard drive. So, your memories are pretty accessible- the little stuff not so much? Eventually the system shifts through what needs to be retained as a long term memory and what you could do without. But for the most part big things, what’s important, is saved,” Matthew tapped his index finger against the screen of his box, the dark color of the screen and green text flashing into negatives beneath the pressure, “This though? This isn’t on your hard drive and that’s why it’s showing up on a diagnostics box. You were actively recollecting what’s on here and we just got lucky enough to have you wired up.”

Takashi’s brows fell, pinching together in confusion while he tried to piece together how something like that was even possible. Lance stood beside Matthew with his mouth slightly ajar and his eyes wide. He looked...awe struck...and a little confused- which seemed odd. Matthew was clearly an intelligent person and what he deduced was the only thing that made any real sense to Takashi since he’d lost an entire block of time.

Why did that shock Lance?

“How the hell do you know about all this stuff?! If you’re secretly an Android you know you can tell me right? Nooo judgement here,” Lance joked.

There was a flash of fear across Matthew’s features, like he’d been caught, but it quickly melted into an uneasy smile.

“It’s my job to know all this stuff. I fix androids.”

Takashi knew he was deflecting. The information in his head spiraled about, pulling up the requirements for a program engineer employed at Rebel Tech. It was easy enough. Their website had all of the information clearly listed under “Join the Team.” Basic maintenance and troubleshooting. At least a GED and a passing grade on their Android proficiency test was all it took.

 

 

The test consisted of:

  
Hardware Replacement  
Hardware Installation  
Basic Aesthetic Repair  
Basic Program Assessment  
Workplace Safety  
PPE procedures

 

 

 

Matthew was staring up at him in silence by the time Takashi emerged from the pool of information. He looked nervous. The way his jaw clenched confirmed he was nervous. Amber eyes had been trained on a spot just left of Takashi’s. He lifted his hand, feeling for what it was that the engineer could have been so focused on, and paused when his fingers slid over a smooth, circular, bump a few centimeters from the corner of his right eye.

“What is this?” Takashi asked, feeling over the textures of his temple.

“It’s your LED.” Matthew replied, keeping his voice even.

“What does it do?”

“It’s a visual for us. It lets us know you’re okay or if you’re in trouble. If something is wrong,” he’d paused and Takashi turned his eyes on Matthew. They watched each other in a tense silence, “or if you’re thinking about something.”

Matthew was wildly overqualified for the job he currently occupied.

…..why was that….?

Lance shattered the stillness with a flurry of arm movement. Takashi shifted his attention to find the sales associate roughly dragging his fingers through his own hair, before dragging his them down his face. His pinky fingers snagged on his bottom lip, revealing pink gums, and the line of his bottom row of teeth.

“Can we take our journey of self discovery when I’m not burning my lunch break? Let's just focus on what the heck this computer brain flashback means,” Lance sighed, letting his arms drop listlessly to his sides, “and why he’s choking out his friends because of it.”

Friends?

Was that what they were?

“Well,” Matthew started, the tone in his voice making it clear he was thankful for the subject change, “let’s pull it up.”

Takashi stood still, watching Matthew closely as the engineer shuffled his belongings across his desk. The whir of Takashi’s biomechanics buzzed away in his head as he gathered up what information he could on the sandy haired man in front of him.

 

Matthew shifted a notebook riddled with scribbles to the corner of the desk. Some of the ink had been smeared to the right before the ink could dry.

Matthew Holt: Left Handed.

 

 

Next was a coffee mug, sat atop the notepad, with the slogan “Live Long and Prosper” printed in-

 

 

///Analyzing///

Printed in phosphorescent text.

 

Matthew Holt: fan of Star Trek.

 

There were remnants of tea leaves in the cup- left to sit in a shallow pool of tea. No coffee then.

 

 

///Analyzing///

GyoKuro.

 

///Referencing///

 _Taste-Tea.com_  
_Family owned and operated. Boasting organic blends._  
_Connoisseur Teas_  
_GyoKuro_  
_$24.95_

 

Matthew Holt: Tea Snob.

 

 

Takashi chuckled to himself, but the sound went unnoticed as Lance set to helping shift the desk around. He slid the computer monitor around with an easy push once Matthew had all of his effects organized out of the way. The screen looked like it had been unfurled paper that managed to be stiff enough that it didn’t simply curl back in. Tanned fingers gently peeled the sides back, opening it up enough that the three of them could get a view of what would eventually be pulled up on the screen.

Matthew stepped around the desk and made his way over to where Takashi stood.

“One tick.” Matt said quietly and he watched as his hands lifted from his side, fingertips reaching for Takashi’s abdomen.

The android stayed still, but he could feel the purr of his operating system kick up. Takashi let his eyes fall to the hands that been pressed to the flesh of his stomach. There were knicks, tiny scrapes where the alloy of other androids must have caught on fragile skin. His knuckles were scabbed, the middle three, something he could only assume was due to the nature of having to reach around inside of an unforgiving environment to perform repairs. Androids must not have been built with the hands of their engineers in mind.

On his own skin Takashi could see more cauterized marks. A long streak of deep red slithered over the jut of his hip, arching towards his navel, where it disappeared beneath Matthew’s palm. His chest felt tight, but he fought it back down. Lance had paused, falling eerily still where he stood beside Matthew’s desk, blue eyes trained on the LED.

“What is it?” Takashi blinked and looked up.

Lance shifted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

“It uh- the LED turned red. It did that...y’know...before your computer flashback...thing….”

“Sorry…”Takashi frowned.

“Hey, not your fault,” the sales associate was quiet for a moment, but it was clear he had something on his mind, something he wanted to say, “...what were you thinking about?”

“I just wish I knew why,” he lifted his hand to motion to the scarring and that visibly made Lance uncomfortable due to Matthew’s proximity. Matthew, however, hadn’t so much as flinched, “ I don’t like that I don’t remember…”

“The good thing is,” this time it was Matthew’s voice and Takashi looked down, “that you do remember.”

Lance and Takashi exchanged confused looks.

“Sort of.” Matthew clarified.

He stepped over to his desk, the black box wire that had been paired with Takashi flopped lazily in Matthew’s grip. Worn fingers pried open the cover to a box set into the desktop so the cover would be flush- sharp and clean like everything else in that room. Inside was a collection of female ports. Ports hadn’t served any commercial use in years considering physical transfers were long outdated. It was interesting how manual and dated technology was when you peeled away all of the aesthetics.

Lance sprawled across his corner of the desk, his chest pressed flat against the smooth surface, wrinkling his tie and skewing his name tag. The periwinkle color of his tie sparkled in the peaks, where the light hit, and bled into a deep blue in the valleys. Shiro wasn’t sure which color it was intended to be when it wasn’t crushed beneath the weight of its owner.

Matthew dropped his free hand to rest on the top of Lance’s head while the opposite plugged the black box into one of the ports.

“What’s up? Using your brain too much, Mr. Personality?”

“Screw off, Matt. I almost watched my friends try to murder each other today and now I’m having an existential crisis over Androids...I need a freaking nap.”

Takashi smiled, softly, and it felt warm in his chest. It chased away the guilt if only for a moment. The monitor lit up, green text on a black backdrop, and he turned his attention to the line of code as it presented itself.

“From a couple of these lines….like…..” Matthew tapped his finger on the screen, “this one. We can tell whatever was going on wasn’t boxing. You had a weapon.”

 

Action == ”Equip”  
print ”You have now equipped Bladed Tonfa”

 

Lance shifted, lifting his cheek off of the desk, leaving a cloud of warmth in his wake. Blue eyes followed along on the screen, shifting further ahead from where Matthew had indicated with his finger.

“Does that mean...someone else was attacking him” He inquired curiously, the life seeming to seat back into his limbs as he touched his index finger to another line of code.

 

 

print ”Galra Gladiator Charges”  
”Galra Charges. What would you like to do?”

 

 

“Yeah. That’s exactly what that means.”

“...that doesn’t sound like….boxing?” Lance offered, looking over to Takashi for verification.

Takashi nodded, his mouth set in a grim line. Something was itching- burning- vibrating? He couldn’t tell, but it was seated low in his head. He could see his reflection in the monitor and searched for any sign of his LED. Against all of the white in the room, and the dark silhouette of his form mirrored back at him, he could see a red flicker at his temple.

“Something isn’t right over there. This kind of Android fighting is illegal for a reason. The trauma corrupts something in the way you guys process,” Matthew spoke, mostly to himself, “if something would have happened. Say- of you hadn’t been attached to the diagnostic box when you…”

“Flashbacked.” Lance offered when Matthew didn’t have a technical term that would have fit what it was they were looking at.

“...Flashbacked,” Matthew nodded, continuing, “Galra Industries would have been liable. Why would they risk getting caught with something that dangerous when all we need to do is run the-“

The engineer’s eyes went wide and he stood straight up, nearly knocking his coffee mug to the floor in his scramble to make it back over to Takashi.

“Takashi. Please, state your Android Identification Number.”

Something clicked. Black fell completely silent, no longer purring away in his mind as the operating system shifted through his train of thought. Everything went blank and his eyes shifted to look at Matthew despite not being asked. He felt like a passenger in his own body and it made his stomach flip.

“My Android Identification Number is: B-117-9875.”

As soon as the numbers left his lips Takashi felt himself sucked back into himself with a force. He jolted into his own chest and looked to the monitor to place some sort of label on the unsettled feeling in his gut.

“Shit.”

Takashi looked away from his reflection to find Matthew hunched over a handheld.

“What is it?” Lance echoed Takashi, the pair of them startled, not expecting to hear the other’s voice.

“It’s fake,” Matthew looked between Lance and Takashi, his shoulders slumped in a shocked awe, “the identification number is fake. He’s not on our watch list! No one has reported him missing or anything...but that number is fake.”

“...can...can we...find my real identification number?”

“I can’t….” he stated, begrudgingly dropping his handheld onto the newly arranged desktop, ignoring the yelp of surprise from Lance,”....but I bet my sister could.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’M EXCITED FOR KATIE NEXT CHAPTER. 
> 
> Thank you guys for all the kudos and comments! <3


	4. One Red Thread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew’s sister presents new information that may be the key to finding who Takashi was before showing up at Rebel Tech.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HUUUUGE thank you to Kunfetti for helping me beta this. You’re so amazing and I am forever grateful!
> 
>  
> 
> ****warning for suggested sexual violence******

Lance had been the one to take Takashi back towards the front of the store once Matthew had finished with repairs. He looked guilty- for what Takashi had no idea. The two of them stood side by side, behind the front desk, in silence for what couldn’t have been more than five minutes, but felt like an eternity. Eventually Lance had taken a seat on one of the stools, hooked the small heel of his dress shoes on the cross bars at the bottom, and bounced his right knee while he waited for whoever Galra Industries had sent to pick up Takashi.

The android stood quietly beside him.

 

“I don’t like this one bit,” came Lance’s voice ten minutes later. Takashi had been watching the clock hanging above the front door.

 

“Don’t like what?” He asked quietly, watching as a couple talked to another sales associate.

 

They were looking over a female android nestled in the far left corner. The sales associate had been clamoring about the specifications; housework, organization, child care, time management…

Takashi felt uncomfortable just being present to witness it. He wanted to say something. He wanted Lance to say something, but the tan man beside him had been too busy shaking his leg and glaring at the front door. The other models stood with quiet smiles under the same hungry eyes of other customers.

They were just...things.…

They could be purchased and financed. Only eight hundred ninety-nine for the basic model and the first twelve months are interest free. You couldn’t get any better than that! What is eight hundred when it comes to your health, life, and happiness. Right?

He wondered if Lance talked about them the same way.

 

“I don’t like that we know they’re hurting you and I have to just give you back. No questions asked…”

 

Sad, blue eyes turned to look up at Takashi, no longer fixated on an empty door frame. He felt something in his chest squirm like there had been an eel trapped in the metal scaffolding of his ribs.

 

“It will be alright.”

 

Lance didn’t seem convinced and pouted, turning his attention back to the sales floor.

 

“I dunno...I got a bad feeling…”

 

“Worst case; I just get to see you and Matthew again, right?” Takashi offered, hating the way Lance’s shoulders had slumped, like the weight of his ash colored blazer was too much.

 

“...Yeah...I guess that’s a good point.…” Lance knew that wasn’t the worst case, he’d seen Matthew have to shut down enough damaged androids by now to be that ignorant, but he kept it to himself.

 

The chime of the front door rang out with authority. Both Lance and Takashi found themselves breathlessly drawn to attention as a barrel chested man stepped through, barely small enough to fit through the door frame. He had a sharp, boxed, chin set on a square face. His cheekbones jutted out far enough to cast a heavy shadow down the sides of his face.

It wasn’t anyone Takashi recognized and he chanced a wary glance at Lance, who must have picked up on it because he’d mumbled something about the man having a tree stump for a neck. It wasn’t an exaggeration. The man’s neck had been so thick, had his jawline not been at at such a striking angle, it would have been hard to tell where his head ended and his neck began. Two mountainous lumps of trapezius sat on either side and it was clear enough by the time the strange man approached the front desk that he’d been inexplicably strong...

 

….and an android….

 

“My name is Sendak. I’m here on behalf of Galra Industries.” He stated simply.

 

His eyes were bronze in color, similar to Matthew’s eyes, except lacking any of the warmth the engineer’s held. Lance shifted uncomfortably, holding a lithe hand out in order to direct the Galra Android to the Customer Service Android a few feet away from them.

 

“He, uh, you can talk to him. He processes the payments and you guys can deal with the paperwork….”

 

“Alright,” and with that Sendak shifted his lumbering form further down the length of the desk, dwarfing the Customer Service model that starred up at him blankly, “My name is Sendak. I am here on behalf of Galra Industries.”

 

“Hello, Sendak. That will be two hundred dollars- even.”

 

Sendak nodded; “Processing Payment.”

 

Takashi watched as the LED on Sendak’s temple rotated its yellow light.

He was thinking. That must have been what Matthew saw when Takashi was rummaging through Rebel Tech’s website..

 

“Processing Payment,” the android behind the counter echoed, but Takashi couldn’t see his LED from where he stood, “Payment received. Thank you for your business. Rebel Tech is always happy to help.”

 

Lance pushed up onto his feet, the hollow drag of the stool’s legs rumbled beneath the commotion of the sales floor. Takashi could see him pushing the tip of his tongue against the inside of his bottom lip, thinking something over.

 

“Hey, take this,” Lance turned and careful fingers pressed a card to Takashi’s chest, as the Rebel Tech Android turned to fetch Takashi, “if...I dunno...stuff gets weird? Call me.”

 

Takashi moved his hand up, replacing Lance’s fingers against his chest with in an easy slide. He could feel the corners of the card pressing into his palm as he took a hold of it, placing it into his pants pocket.

 

“I will. I’ll call.” He smiled, ignoring the Customer Service Android’s call for his attention, in favor of Lance’s easy smile.

 

—————————————————————

 

Matthew had spent the rest of the day in a state of irritation. He’d been watching the clock on the far wall of his workshop and each tick that passed by made him want to walk out, job be damned, bills be damned, and find his sister. It would have been more productive than sitting there and trying to reconstruct another android that someone had gotten a little too rough with down at “Tease.” He hated the idea of an android sex club enough already without taking into account almost seventy percent of his job had consisted of fixing their androids.

Rebel Tech and Tease had been only three store fronts away from each other...which meant it was conventiant business for them. Thus Matthew spent the greater half of his employment having to spelunk into the nether bits of androids in order to repair tears- or countless other atrocities. He’d been so desensitized by the horrific, confounding, confusing, and down right bizarre situations Tease presented him with that by now he barely batted an eye.

That probably said a lot about his own humanity.

Eventually he’d just stopped looking at the clock in fear of losing what little sanity he had left.

 

“Hey, Matt do you mind if I- **IIIIII** MATT WHAT THE HELL!? _OH GOD!_ IS THAT!? IS THAT _ANDROID JUNK!?_ ”

 

When Lance had so surreptitiously burst into the back room, Matthew had been sitting on a rolling stool at the foot of one of the tables they lay androids on for repair- with a long, slender leg butterflied out on either side of his head. Beside him was a monitor that displayed the real time video of the scope camera he had to use for internal repairs, in his right hand sat his bayonet style forceps, and in his left was the cauterizing wand.

He could only imagine how insane that must have looked from Lance’s perspective.

 

“Dude! Close the door! You can’t just stand there like that when I’m doing this sort of thing!” Matthew shouted over his shoulder, not looking away from the monitor.

 

“S-sorry! I just- I thought you’d be ready to go,” Lance closed the door behind him as he stepped fully into the room, “Do you have any idea what time it is?

 

“What time is it?” He asked offhandedly, pressing his tongue to the back of his front teeth in concentration.

 

“It’s like...six o’clock ma-“

 

“Six o’clock!?” He’d lifted his foot off the pedal that activated the wand, removed his tools, and a dropped them onto the tabletop beside the android’s right leg, “SShit. Shit! I just wasted so much _time_! Takashi’s stuck over there and I’m sitting here doing- _THIS_!?“

 

Matt planted his feet, standing straight up from his rolling stool, with his hands extended towards the lap of the android he was currently working on. For a moment the only sound in the room was the plastic clatter of the stool’s wheels as it slowly rolled a few feet away from Matthew.

 

“....Uh…..right…...so…….” Lance tried to continue, but fell silent as one of the android’s legs that had been propped up, fell flat to the table with a fleshy slap.

 

“...”

 

“...”

 

Matthew coughed, uncomfortably, and walked over to his desk. Rebel Tech had no protocol for covering Androids. In fact, there was no protocol for taking care of, or preserving the dignity of, Androids _at all_ , but Matthew had taken it upon himself to bring in a sheet from home. He kept it in the bottom draw of his desk. It seemed like a common sense thing to have given the nature of his work, but more than one of the other engineers had a good laugh over it at his expense.

He didn’t really care what they thought.

The white fabric billowed out behind him as Matthew unfolded it and made his way towards the table. He adjusted the leg that had still been cocked to the side on an angle, laying it flat beside its sister, and laid the sheet across the android’s lap.

A beat of silence passed between the two of them, until Lance had mustered up the energy to try to speak again.

 

“I was gonna say; Do you mind if I come with? Y’know- to see your sister about the ID number…” Matthew didn’t reply right away and Lance pushed on, “I just- I wanna be there if you find something. I want to help him.”

 

“Of course,” Tthe engineer smiled, clapping a hand down on Lance’s shoulder, reassuring, “we’re in this together. Right?”

 

“Yeah?” The sales associate smiled, looking up from the hand on his shoulder, “I mean...cool. Every hero need as sidekick and you’re clearly sidekick material...so…”

 

Matthew scoffed, pushing Lance towards to door with the hand that had been on his shoulder, following behind him as he stumbled. The soft sole of his shoe pressed into the meat of Lance’s backside- pushing him further towards the door with a playful kick.

 

“Sidekick, my ass.” Another nudge.

 

“Hey! _Hey!_ Feet off the goods!”

———————————————-

The ride to Matthew’s parents house had been easy going once they’d gotten over the initial awkward silence.

Lance had talked about his family. There had been so many names Matthew eventually lost track and just enjoyed the stories without focusing too much on who was in them. Matthew had rambled on about the first all android crew to be sent up into space recently and the amount of samples they’d be able to gather.

Before Rebel Tech Lance had worked in a handful of retail jobs, mostly over in the cybermall, and he’d been on the cheer squad in school. When he first started it was under the guise of getting to know a lot of cute girls at once, but he’d never told anyone it was an actual passion. Apparently no one really cared enough to find that out about him, but if they were listing off fun facts- that was his. Matthew said he didn’t have much work experience outside of Rebel Tech- he’d spent the majority of time in school earning his degree. (Not that it did him much good to have...all things considered.) A fun fact; he liked wood work and used it to clear his head sometimes.

The car turned down a gravel driveway sandwiched by bending trees. The branches had grown, interwoven, like knotty, old, hands. The canopy of leaves overhead sent patches of shadow and light dancing over the car.

Lance leaned against the window, trying to get a better look at the property around them, but the line of trees had been so tightly spaced that he only caught slivers of green grass and large decorative rocks. Matthew just smiled, content to be home, and watched Lance curiously peering around- knowing full well there was nothing to see for a few more feet.

At the end of the driveway sat a small, one story house. Thick vines crawled up the right corner of the house, spilling onto the roof, and winding around the black window shutters that sat beside each window. It was still made of wood, painted white, which was surprising to find. Almost everything by now had been remodeled or rebuilt to fit the same sleek, sharp, construction of the world around it. The most dated homes in a neighborhood like the one Matthew’s family found themselves in were at least made of brick or stone. Wood was found in the less privileged pockets- dilapidated houses with boarded up windows and overgrown lawns. Thick vines crawled up the right corner of the house, spilling onto the roof, and winding around the black window shutters that sat beside each window.

 

“You have arrived at your destination,” the car chimed, slowing to a stop.

 

Lance smiled, looking over to Matthew who just shrugged as their seats swiveled to face the rear of the car. The right side of the car split, opening up to the tidy brick walkway that led from the side of the driveway to the steps of the front porch.

 

“So, you didn’t tell me you lived in a fairytale cottage.” the sales associate teased, moving to stand beside the car.

 

“ _I_ don’t. My sister and parents, however, do.” Matthew corrected with a smile, immediately setting on his path to the front porch, “we have a dog. So, just...be ready.”

 

Lance raised an eyebrow, stepping up onto the porch behind Matthew, and watched in silence as the engineer raised his hand to knock. The bark somewhere deep in the house had beat him to it. Every round of rampant sound had been closer and closer to the front door, and ended in the sporadic sound of scratching.

 

“Well, they know we’re here.” Matthew joked.

 

Before the laugh stirring in Lance’s chest could leave his lips, a furry face appeared in the window to his right, scaring him enough that the sales associate nearly threw himself off of the porch. He landed hard on his backside, eliciting a hollowed thump from the planks beneath him. Blue eyes stared up at the window, wide in shock, as the Holt’s dog set to...set to…

 

“Is it...trying to eat the window?”

 

“....Yeah, Bae Bae does that….”

 

Bae Bae, had vigorously set to trying to chew the window with the side of its mouth, dragging long streaks of drool across what had been clean glass. Lance could see the jagged line of the dog’s teeth and black spotted gums as its lips were splayed open against the glass with each chomp.

 

“She’s just excited,” Matthew explained, “hopefully mom comes and gets her before she drools all over the place.”

 

“COOOOMING,” a woman’s voice called from inside, “ew, Bae Bae that is so freaking gross- stop. Stooop. Bae Bae no! _Nooo~._ NO.”

 

A small, pale hand appeared in the window, grabbing a hold of the chunky nylon collar. Lance couldn’t help, but laugh as the Holt’s dog fought desperately against the hand in order to continue trying to chew her way through the glass to greet her new friends. There was more of a struggle and eventually the owner of the hand had gotten Bae Bae to stop eating the window, but traded that for a meaty tail beating into the glass instead.

 

“KATIE JUST OPEN THE DOOR! IT’S ME!”

 

There was a pause, followed by an exasperated “Oh.”

Lance pushed himself up onto the palms of his hands and got to his feet.

 

“WATCH OUT!” Matthew called out, juking out his family’s dog with a quick side step, leaving his co-worker to fend for himself.

 

The sales associate had started to brush the back side of his pants off….only to be slammed back down onto the porch again after the door opened- releasing a rambunctious chocolate lab.

Bae Bae was stout and round. There wasn’t much shape between her head, neck, and body. The purple nylon collar was the only real distinction and even that seemed to slide about with the amount of wiggling going on. It was like the swing of her tail had just girated through the rest of her body, nearly knocking her off of her own feet from the excitement.

The wiggling wrecking ball aimed right for the knees, her low center of gravity, and surprising girth easily overtaking long, lanky, limbs. Lance had squeezed his eyes shut when he felt the underside of a swollen belly start dragging up his legs.

 

“Ooh, geez, Bae Bae!” Matthew’s voice had barely been audible over the wet, warm, huff of dog breath against Lance’s ear.

 

He’d covered his face with his hands and turned his head to avoid getting licked. All that did was reveal a new strip of real estate that needed to know Bae Bae was happy to meet him.

 

“Bae Bae no!”

 

“OH GOD, _HELP_ IT TICKLES! **IT _TICKLES!!_ ”**

 

Lance couldn’t see much past his own fingers. The little he could see was the sopping wet jowls of Bae Bae, that intermittently moved out of the way enough to reveal a horrified girl trying to wrestle the dog off of him, and Matthew trying to find the best way to get close enough to help.

 

“MOOOM!”

 

“BAE BAE! YOU WANT PANCAKES!?” Another voice rang out from the house.

 

Lance assumed it must have been Matthew’s mom.

The dog hovering above him went very still.

 

“PANCAKES!?” This time the voice was an octave higher and that must have been the trick because Bae Bae lumbered off of him at breakneck speeds.

 

A paw slammed hard into the meat of his thigh and he’d curled in on himself in a panic, only to yelp out in pain as the second paw managed to catch him between the legs. Lance groaned, rolling onto his side, and pressed his face into the worn wood of the porch floor. He could hear Matthew’s sister laughing to herself and Matthew’s sympathetic hiss of pain.

 

“...You okay, man?” Matthew asked slowly, moving over to Lance’s side.

 

“I think I’m sterile,” Lance wheezed, limply holding up a hand for Matthew to take.

 

The engineer laughed, a short bark of sound, and helped Lance to his feet with a wide smile. Amber eyes had traveled down, going wide as they reached Lance’s hips, and suddenly Matthew had been caught up in a fresh fit of laughter.

 

“D-dude!” A bout of giggles. It peaked his sister’s interest and an almost identical pair of eyes fixated below Lance’s swank work belt, “y-you have a- you have-!!! A fucking perfectpawprintonyourdickiamdying!”

 

His sister had nearly doubled over behind him, bracing herself against the bench that sat beside the worn, red, front door. Tears had welled up in the corner of her eyes, streaming down her cheeks from behind the wire frame of her glasses.

 

“...A wha..?” Lance looked down at his own lap, missing out on the hilarity of the situation.

 

There, on the crisp grey of his dress slacks, planted right on the neatly ironed fly, was a dusty paw print- courtesy of Bae Bae. Lance could feel his ears heat up as color streaked across his cheeks.

 

“Wha-!? MAN WHAT THE HECK!?” He grumbled, setting to try rubbing the mark off with his sleeve, and only managing to disperse more dirt across his lap.

 

“AAAAAAAAH-AHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Both Matthew and his sister erupted into hysterics that followed the same dip and rise.

 

“S-stop! You gotta stop! ICANTBREATH!”

 

Lance pouted, crossing his arms over his chest, and let his hip drop off to the side as he waited for the two of them to get themselves together.

It took a minute. The long groans of dying laughter eventually petered out into quiet chuckles, and those chuckles bled into half silent sighs.

 

“You guys done?” He mumbled, watching Matthew rub his eyes with the back of his sleeve.

 

“Y-yeah. S-sorry,” Matthew apologized. He held a hand out towards Lance, fighting another bout of giggles, “Katie, this is L-lance. Lance- Katie.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Lance. Sorry about the d-dog,” she was still fighting her own fit off.

 

“Nice to meet you too, Katie.” Came Lance’s sincere reply.

 

“Well,” Katie started, standing at her full height- which couldn’t have been much more than five feet, “Mom and Dad will be happy to see you. You’re gonna get roped into dinner at this hour. You realize that right?”

 

Matthew nodded, letting his hands rest on his hips as he looked down at his sister.

 

“Yeah, got out of work later than I wanted,” he rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes flicked between Katie and Lance, “but uh- I’m not really just dropping in for fun.”

 

Katie raised an eyebrow, her own hands moving to rest on her hips as well.

Outside of the obvious height difference and the glasses the two of them could have been variances of the same person. Technically they were, but Lance knew better than anyone that siblings could have turned out looking like they hadn’t even come from the same parents- let alone end up looking _that_ similar.

Katie’s hair was more of a tawny, golden brown then Matthew’s and from where Lance stood he could see flecks of gold throughout her eyes that her brother didn’t possess. Her face was smaller, but the same shape, and their noses both lifted up at the tip- like Christmas elves.

 

“We need your help, Katie,” Matthew continued, his eyes glanced towards the house briefly, and turned back to his sister, “I need you to work your magic with an Android Identification Number.”

 

“....Ookaay,” she pushed her brother for more information.

 

“I got a fraudulent number hit today at work. There’s no paperwork. No one reported him missing. No records. Nothing. There’s got to be something out there.”

 

“Maybe someone just didn’t care.” Katie offered, playing devil’s advocate.

 

“...I don’t want to believe that…” Matthew replied quietly.

 

Lance watched as Katie pressed her front teeth into the plush of her lower lip, looking up at her brother with an expression he couldn’t put his finger on. He held his breath, hoping it meant she was thinking about helping them- about helping Takashi.

 

“You know….interesting you say that.”

 

Now it was Matthew’s turn to look unsure.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“There’s been somebody popping up claiming someone stole his android, but for some reason they can’t just put in a report. They’re showing up everywhere- even these obscure little corners of cybernet. I wonder if it’s connected…” Katie tapped her index finger to her chin, considering something, “how long have you known the android?”

 

“Almost a month,” Lance chimed in. He didn’t know if it was the feeling being left out or the excitement they might actually be onto something that compelled him.

 

“...I’ve been following him longer than that. It’s almost been a year. You think they just laid low with the stolen android for a bit?”

 

“I think...I think the poor guy just got beat bad enough that he needed to get outside help…” Matthew’s tone dropped, sad.

 

Lance felt the energy leave his shoulders- his mind back on his friend who was more than likely going to take another beating. There wasn’t much left of him for Matthew to fix…

Katie frowned, following her brother’s train of thought despite the vague nature of the statement. There was something behind her eyes that looked unfamiliar. Lance struggled to give it a name.

 

“You have the android’s diagnostics with you?”

 

“Yeah, I snapped a picture.”

 

“Cool. We’ll get to that. Make sure you guys say “Hi” to Mom and Dad. I’m gonna pull up what I got and we can look at it before dinner.”

 

Matthew nodded, motioning for Lance to follow him with a wave of his hand.

—————————————-

 

The first thing Lance had noticed about the Holt’s family home was the strange collection of rocks that were strewn throughout. The coffee table was littered with tiny bowls filled with chipped stone and slivers of some variant of earth. A large, pale, pink colored stone was being used as door stop for the back door Bae Bae had been running in and out of. The kitchen window had an assortment of rocks that had been cut into thin slices and strung up so that the sun passed through them, speckling the kitchen sink in circles of color.

Colleen, Matthew’s mom, seemed to be normal enough. Lance didn’t peg her for some kind of rock enthusiast. They’d exchanged pleasantries with Colleen taking a break in between to feed Bae Bae another frozen mini pancake when the chocolate lab came barreling into the kitchen. She sent them off to talk to Sam- Matthew’s dad.

Now, Sam, on the other hand was an interesting character. When Lance and Matthew had stopped in the doorway of his office, waiting for a chance to pry him away from whatever was on the desk in front him, the man immediately turned around in his chair with a stone nestled in his palm. He’d beamed at his son, clamoring about how much they missed him at home, Lance’s suit, how work was going- and then pushed the rock forward and told Matthew to lick it.

 _LICK. IT._ As if that was totally normal.

Lance was confused and horrified, but when he looked to Matthew out of the corner of his eye the engineer just looked amused.

 

_“Uh, maybe not right now. I don’t want to freak Lance out with any more weird stuff. He’s already been attacked by Bae Bae.”_

 

Sam had just nodded, seeming to fully understand the severity of the situation, and motioned to the crotch of Lance’s dress slacks that were still dusted a lighter gray from the smudged paw print.

 

_”Ah, that makes a lot more sense now.”_

 

Matthew snorted and Lance was starting to wonder if he’d be able to get away with hitting their son in his own home. Matthew later explained that his dad was a geologist, hence all of the samples just strewn about the house. That seemed weird...Lance had always pictured scientist with their samples neatly labeled and tucked away from any sort of contamination.

Eventually they’d made it to the bedroom at the end of the hallway and Katie had left the door cracked. It must have been an invitation because Matthew hadn’t bothered to knock. The pair stepped right into what looked like some kind of war zone. Lance had seen disorganized people, but this was leaning further from disorganized, and closer to hoarder status.

The same habit of having rocks strewn about seemed to have bled in from the rest of the house. On the windowsill facing the front yard were hundreds of tiny pebbles in a plethora of different colors, refracting the incoming sunlight, and painting her walls. The bed was unmade and it looked like she must have slept like a whirlwind with the way the sheets and blanket were twisted. Lance had to step around what looked like spare computer parts, motors, tiny motherboards, and wires as he followed Matthew closer to the desk in the back, left corner of the room, farthest from the window.

“Watch out for rover. He likes to hide.” Katie had been sitting at the desk chair, the sound of her fingers against the keyboard clacking, rapid fire.

 

“R-rover?” Lance asked warily, not entirely sure he was ready to deal with another Holt house pet. Blue eyes scanned the room for some sign of fur lurking behind the assortment of items strewn throughout the room, but came up empty handed.

 

“Mm-hmm.” Came her careless reply.

A flash of movement drew Lance’s eyes to the rock window, but when everything seemed to be still he just assumed it was his paranoia getting the best of him.

 

That is until there was another flash.

 

“Okay seriously…” he grumbled, trying to visualize where the scamper of shadow would have landed- at the foot of Katie’s bed.

 

Nothing again.

Lance’s eyebrows pinched together as he turned his attention forward, following Matthew the rest of the way to Katie’s desk. He let his palm rest easily on the high back of the computer chair that looked more like a throne now that they were closer. Matthew had stood beside her, planting his hands flat against the desktop as he watched the screen.

 

“Alright,” the youngest Holt began, clicking through what looked like saved shots of various forums, “so far this guy’s been on over three hundred different forums throughout the course of the year under the same name.”

 

She pulled up a flurry of windows that filled the screen in a matter of seconds to prove her point, but cleared it out in favor of two specific windows.

 

“The one on the left is his first post that I could dig up. He just sounds kind of...annoyed, but something is weird. It’s like he’s trying to talk his way around something.”

 

Both Lance and Matthew leaned forward, bringing themselves closer to the screen in order to read. They’d been crowding Katie, but she didn’t seem to be bothered by it as she sat back in her chair, with her arms crossed over her chest.

 

 

 _ED2939: Someone lifted my friend_.

_I know this is not a coincidence. There’s been four lifted in the last six months._

_If you have any information contact me here._

 

 

“A _lifted_ friend?” Lance turned to look at Matthew and then to Katie’s reflection on the computer screen, but she just shrugged.

 

“I think he’s trying to work around searches. Trying to get his messages out without tipping off someone that he’s looking. I looked up any news or police reports for missing or stolen androids around the time this post was made,” Katie replied, craning her neck to look up at Matthew beside her, ”and between April and August there were four reports of stolen androids on public record. If you dug deeper into police databases...wheeeeere you’re not supposed to be….there were at least six. So, this person is a civilian.”

 

“I don’t know...he doesn’t even mention an AID number. That’d be the easiest way. Not even a description.”

 

“Well, if he’s trying to avoid attention? Broadcasting the exact ID number of the person you’re looking for isn’t the best way to lay low. And you know better than anybody a description of a single android is useless. They’re all just carbon copies of whatever their model is.”

 

“Oh, right, I keep forgetting everyone else is-“ he cut himself short when his little sister seemed to tense up, anticipating what might have come next had he not caught himself with a quiet, “...like that. Like the model we’re dealing with at work...isn’t the only one out there.”

 

There was a brief moment when both of their eyes focused on Lance. He could feel it on his skin, but chose to feign ignorance instead. Blue eyes scanned over the box Katie had pulled up on the right side of the screen.

 

“Well, he looks pissed in this one,” he tapped the computer screen with his index finger, effectively drawing the Holt’s attention back to the monitor.

 

 

_ED2939: I know what you’re doing._

_I know you are following me._  
_I will get him back._  
_Whatever it takes. As many times as it takes._

 

 

“Yeah, there’s been a few in between that’s just him screaming into the void. The guy’s got a nice temper on him.” Katie hummed while pale fingers idly pushed around a pebble on her desk top.

 

“Have you ever contacted him?” Matthew had asked, but he’d already taken to sliding his finger over the screen, pulling up the message icon on the forum.

 

“No,” she swatted his hand away, but just seemed to continue where he left off, and hit the compose message icon, “he has tried to get into my system. Which...good luck with that buddy...but he’s just stubborn enough that it could have worked if it was anyone else.”

 

“So, he knows it’s you following him?”

 

“I mean, he doesn’t know it’s _me_ , but he knows.”

 

Lance had been staring at the screen while the two siblings had their chat. His fingers itched. He wanted to talk to this ED2939. If he knew Takashi then maybe they could just bust in the door at Galra Industries and get him back home, where he belonged. 

 

“Well, let’s talk to him!” He blurted out, standing his ground as two confused pairs of eyes stared up at him.

 

The three of them stood there in silence lost in their own thoughts for a moment, before Matthew shrugged, holding his hand out to the empty text box on the screen. Katie pushed her chair off to the side, crossing her ankle over her knee once Lance had enough space to fully reach the keys that hologramed on the surface of the desk, and smiled.

 

“What do you want to say?”

 

“Uh, I-I….I dunno….” Lance shrugged, leaving thin fingers to hover, unsure, over the keyboard, “Maybe...something...light?”

 

“Light?” Katie scoffed, now crossing her arms over her chest, “lLike what?”

 

“Uh...how about….this?” The soft thud of Lance’s fingers against the warm surface oof the wooden desk filled the room, if only for a second, before he stepped aside with a proud look on his face, “Ta-da! It’s perfect!”

 

Matthew and Katie both leaned in towards the screen. He could see their reflections in the monitor like mirror images of eachother. A slow smile pulled at the corner of Matthew’s mouth, but Katie’s brows dropped flat. Her eyes flicked up to look at Lance through the reflection, fixing him with a disbelieving stare.

 

“....’Knock, Knock!’…..? You’re kidding.”

 

“Nope!” Lance replied with a wide smile and leaned over the pair of them to hit the send button on the screen. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 _ED2939:_  
_”.....knock, knock? Are you serious?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little longer than the other chapters this time! More Katie to come in the next chapter and we’re further introduced to this strange little forum dweller, haha! 
> 
> Let me know what you think! :3 
> 
> And thank you everyone for the comments and support! They’re what keep me going and it’s so great to be able to knock out chapters pretty quickly! Can’t wait to see what you guys think of this chapter :D


	5. Boy with a Coin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew and Lance lose sleep (and sanity) waiting for Takashi’s call. Lance struggles with his views on androids. Katie searches for answers and finds herself in trouble.

_Guest:_  
_Deadly serious._

_ED2939:_  
_Listen. If you’re just here to screw around I have better things to do._

Lance lifted his fingers tentatively from the keyboard and turned to find Katie slouched back in her chair, with her arms crossed, and an incredulous look on her face. Matthew had slumped closer to the desk, bent over enough to rest his elbow against the desk top, and cradled his chin in the palm of his hand. 

“....you’re going to piss him off and he’s not going to talk…” Katie mumbled and turned to stare at the screen in front of her in exasperation. 

“What do you want me to do!?!” The sales associate held his hand out towards the monitor for clarification, as if any of them needed clarification, “that’s the best I had! And I didn’t hear any suggestions from the peanut gallery.”

Katie made a noise at the back of her nose and turned to look at Matthew.

“He’s the best sales guy we got. Give him some time.” Matthew came to Lance’s defense.

“...Matt...if your buddy wastes tipping off my favorite puzzle...and gets no information out of them? I’m going to be pissed.”

“He won’t,” Matthew assured, looking to Lance with a smile, “he’s got this.” 

-

Lance most certainly did not have it.

They’d stood that way, watching while Lance slowly dug himself a hole in cybernet, and then proceeded to bury himself in it. ED2939 didn’t pick up on most of the humor that Lance used as a tactic to make customers at Rebel Tech feel comfortable. He was either being purposely dense or the humor flew right over the cybernetic gremlin’s head. Every jest was met with an unmoving wall of uninterested text until they were eventually pulled away by the call for dinner. 

It was perfectly timed. Matthew could swear he’d seen actual smoke pouring out of his friend’s ears when their new forum friend started to take digs at Lance’s intelligence.

”Come on, man,” Matthew insisted, hooking his arms around Lance’s waist, and trying to pull him away from the desk he was furiously clinging to, ”we’ll deal with it later.”

“What!? NO! I Can’t let this asshole sit there and think he won!” he squirmed, trying to free himself from Matthew’s arms, and make his way back to Katie’s computer. 

”He did win. And now we’re going to dinner…” Katie sighed, pulling her bedroom door closed behind her as the three of them moved back into the hallway that led to the rest of the house. 

-

Dinner with the Holt family was always full of laughter and wit, but this time things just felt a little more jovial than normal. It could have been the excitement over Matthew’s visit. (Rebel Tech had monopolized the majority of his time- making trips home more scarce.) It could also have been the fact that Lance was a fantastic story teller. 

Matthew watched Lance swing his arms wide with the movements his current recollection required with a soft smile on his face. The tears in the corners of Matthew’s eyes stood as proof of the laughter he’d been lost in moments before. The sales associate had started to climb onto his chair, long, lithe legs pin straight as he saluted some imaginary form a few feet ahead of him. Sam had been nearly doubled over, his weathered hands gripping the worn wood of the table just to keep himself from falling from his seat. Colleen had been gently wiping her napkin at the wet trails along her cheeks, chuckling hard enough that the necklace Matthew and Katie had bought her for Mother’s Day bobbed with the jumps in her laughter. Katie had been on her side of the table, leaned over a plate of half eaten eggplant, trying her best not to let the laughing fit that was threatening to over take her win. 

The warm glow of the light over the table casted everything in a rose gold hue, and as Lance slowly lowered himself into his seat, the two Rebel Tech employees had a moment to themselves. It was short lived, however, because Bae Bae had started to roughly nose her way beneath Lance’s leg- nearly tossing him from his seat. 

They’d all moved into the living room eventually, lying about, and waiting for their dinner to settle. 

Matthew’s parents had taken the love seat with the small of Sam’s back pressed into the arm rest, his ankles hooked over the opposite arm, and Colleen sat comfortable between his legs, back to stomach. Katie had free reign over the armchair she’d claimed once Matthew moved out, chuckling to herself over something on the screen nestled in her lap. Matthew had been sprawled out on the area rug in front of the couch. Lance had been a few feet to his left, his head resting easily on Bae Bae’s stomach, where it bobbed with the movement of her breath. 

Something played quietly on the tv, but no one had been watching it with that much interest. 

Time passed, but Matthew wasn’t sure how much. He’d taken glances out of the tall windows that lined the right side of the living room, but it was hard to judge time that way in the fall. The most he’d been able to make out in the pitch black was the swirl of moths captured in the halo of light radiating from the porch light. 

“We should probably get going before it gets too late,” Matthew spoke up, lazily propping himself up onto his elbows, and looked to Lance, “we still need to get back to Rebel and get your car.”

The lithe form of his friend had been sprawled out on the living room floor, tan limbs strung in every direction despite Lance laying half on his side.His head bobbed, still nestled just behind Bae Bae’s armpit, but the rest of him had been perfectly still. Matthew frowned, his eyebrows pinching together as he tried to get a view of Lance’s face from where he sat on the floor. 

“...I think he’s asleep, Matt…” Colleen smiled from her place on the couch, encircled by her husband’s arms. 

“...geez…” the engineer sighed, rolling onto his stomach, and army crawled over to his friend.

Katie’s eyes lifted from the screen in her lap, observing her brother’s antics. 

“Laaaance,” he drawled as warning, ruffling the disheveled mop of brown hair, “wake uuuup, buddy~”

Lance shifted, rolling fully onto his right side, facing away from Matthew. His hand lifted from where it rested on top of Bae Bae’s head and the lab stirred from her own deep slumber. There was a moment of easy movement, until she’d realized that her nap companion was moving- (leaving!), and she scrambled to her feet. Lance faltered, losing the support of the dog’s body, and half tumbled back to the floor- just in time for Bae Bae to start climbing over him. She’d licked his face frantically as if that would assuage him back to their former napping arrangement. 

It didn’t.

In fact it was quite the opposite. Lance jumped up to his feet, equally frantic, and violently rubbed his face against his suit sleeve. Bae Bae, ever persistent, set to licking his pant leg, leaving deep gray streaks and white lines of frothy slobber. Lance looked down and sighed, realizing his suit was a lost cause. 

“We heading out?” He asked, looking over to Matthew who had started to get to his feet as well. 

“Yeah,” Matthew replied with a smirk, “enjoy your nap?”

“I did actually” Lance shot back with a wide smile and leaned down to pat Bae Bae on the head.

Or tried to...as she was determined to lick the sales associate to death…

“Thanks for having us guys,” Matthew managed as he tried to push Bae Bae’s snout away from Lance long enough that his friend could manage to make it to the front door, and get his shoes on, without being slobbered on. 

“See ya, keep me in touch!” Katie’s voice.  
“Bye guys!” Sam’s voice.  
“Nice meeting you, Lance!” Colleen. 

“Thank you! Nice meeting everyone!” Lance called into the house with a wide smile, half on his way out, with Matthew leading the way. 

He closed the door behind him, grimacing against the chill of the night air, and the realization that it had been raining. Matthew didn’t seem to mind. The engineer dropped down onto the walkway that led to the car without so much as a flinch and Lance shuffled after him, tucking his shoulders up beside his ears.

The car chirped as Matthew laid his hands against the print pad and the doors split down the middle, sliding open, and revealing the warm, dry interior. Lance stepped in, shuffling through to the passenger side of the car, and dropped into his seat with a sigh of relief. Matthew followed after, hitting the “close door” button, and letting his head drop back against his seat. 

Their seats swiveled to face forward and the car hummed to life. 

“Your family is really cool,” Lance offered, the residual warmth of their afternoon still lingering in his smile despite the unforgiving weather. 

Matthew smiled, looking to Lance out of the corner of his eye. 

The inside of the car was speckled with shadows the rain drops casted in, backlit by the porch light of the Holt household. Matthew missed them and it felt right with his soul to be home again. There was something comforting about knowing that he wasn’t in that warm bath by himself. Something about having another person not only experience that, but feel comfortable enough to pass out on the living room floor along with them, stirred something in his chest. 

“Thanks man...I like them too,” he joked, but it was hard to be anything but earnest under the striking blue eyes on him, “They think you’re pretty cool too.”

“Yeah?” The sales associate shifted in his chair, facing forward, but the soft energy in his smile was still just as blinding, “I hope so.”

“I’ve got a pretty good read on them. Katie let you touch her stuff- so you’re probably something special,” the way Lance seemed to swell up in his own skin, the way the smile on his face stretched that extra inch, pinching at the corner of his eyes, had Matthew caught.

He shook it off, looking back out of the car’s windscreen.

They sat that way in silence for the rest of the ride, picking up conversation every now and again, but largely avoiding the subject of Takashi. He’d been the reason they had gone to Matthew’s house, but it was clear enough that the two of them were looking to keep their minds off of the horror he was more than likely facing while they sat and ate dinner. 

It didn’t seem fair.

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair that just being human allowed them to enjoy that feeling of family with such ease while androids like Takashi were treated like property. When they were snatched up from the streets and no one even bothered to put in a report to find them- like Takashi was so easily replaced. Matthew couldn’t imagine his family would ever just accept him being taken from them. The idea of being separated ached in his chest, but he knew without a doubt there was nothing they wouldn’t do to get him back. Matthew would have done the same for any of them. He knew it with such unabashed _surety_ and he hoped Takashi had that with them.

“We’re going to help him…” Lance’s voice pulled Matthew from his thoughts.

He looked to his right- finding his co-worker (his friend) staring down at tan hands, thumbing over the smudges left on his pants, with a sad look on his face. 

“That forum asshole. He’s got to be looking for Takashi, right? Just like us. That’s four people looking into it. We’ll help him.” 

“Yeah,” Matthew managed, working through the weight of his misplaced guilt, “we will.”

——————-

Lance McClain wasn’t a very patient man. 

Matthew must have been some kind of higher power, some kind of saint, to be able to sit on his hands for an entire month. About a week after having seen Katie and finding out about ED2939 Lance had already been nervously wringing his fingers enough that the joints hurt. They couldn’t just _not_ do anything. Sure, Katie had said it was better to leave ED2939 in the dark until she could find out more about him- more about who it was he was looking for, but just _waiting_? 

….there was no way….

Almost _two_ months later there had been no call from Takashi. Katie still insisted that ED2939 was still too riled up to risk reaching out again. She wasn’t in the mood to try and fight him off when the asshole already had such a fire under him. (Apparently, ED2939 was a little paranoid and convinced they were trying to “silence him”.) Lance had nearly twisted his fingers off of his hand from the constant worrying and Matthew looked like he hadn’t slept in ages. 

As the end of the third month crept in, life had almost gone back to some semblance of normality. Matthew must have just tired himself out enough by then that he had no choice but to sleep. While the dark circles beneath his eyes remained, the engineer had managed to get himself together enough to be back in his work, working full steam.

Lance wasn’t as lucky.

Matthew had a job helping androids.  
Lance was selling them. 

As a sales associate he needed to disconnect from the fact he was selling off living things like they were toasters. He had to think himself around the idea that this is how he would have sold Takashi. He had to ignore the fact that he was selling androids to people who saw them as nothing more than machines. He kept the idea that these people could treat any one of the androids he sent them home with as badly as Takashi was being treated and legally there was nothing anyone could do.

You didn’t call the cops because someone mishandled a Television. You didn’t send help for a game console nobody bothered to take care of. Whatever happened to someone’s android was none of your business.

Lance often wondered how many androids people didn’t even bother to bring to people like Matthew...how many people just purchased a new one and tossed the old into the landfill like some bastardized Android Graveyard.

They didn’t even bury them. 

“Shit,” Lance cursed under his breath, quiet enough that the man he’d been pitching one of their companion androids to hadn’t heard.

His watch was going off. It was an incoming call from a number he didn’t recognize.

Takashi was his first thought, but it always was. He’d already bolted away from enough clients to take an incoming call from some telemarketer that by now he was playing this with a little more reserve. He was close on sealing the deal with this guy too. If he left now to take a call he’d miss the money he needed to pay rent. His paycheck had already plummeted thanks to his new view on the product he was pushing and he needed a win. 

Lance sighed, pushing the small button that ran along the distal side of the watch, sending the call straight to voicemail, and turned to face the man with a bright smile. 

“Oh, and did I forget to mention? Just a little,” he paused, running his fingers over his chin as he looked up at the vacant, green, eyes of the android in front of him, “ extra something~ Any damages within the first year are covered and taken care of in house. No extra cost to you as long as it’s in twelve months of the sales date.”

Lance didn’t like the way the man smiled as he considered Lance’s words. He wanted to just tell the android to run- tell them all to run. He wished he made enough money to get them out of there. He wished he didn’t need this job to survive. He wished he could do something- anything.

“Well, Lance,” the man turned holding out his hand for Lance to take, “you’ve convinced me.”

The sales associate smiled, but it was forced. He could feel the muscle in his jaw twitch in protest and the skin of his arm crawled as he moved it to take the man’s hand in a solid grip. 

“Happy to hear, sir. Let me bring you over to the front desk so we can get you all set.”

Lance stood back, watching with an empty smile on his face as the customer service android processed the man’s payment. It was the same android that had sent Takashi back to Galra Industries. It was always that same android because they didn’t get days off or breaks. As a result Lance felt himself reliving letting Takashi go, pushing his card into his chest, and praying everything would be alright over and over again. 

Blue eyes, shadowed by the _sick_ festering in his gut, watched as the man headed for the front door- with his android walking obediently behind him. A numb hand raised in farewell. As soon as the store’s door slid closed Lance ducked his head and walked straight for the door behind the counter that led to Matthew’s space.

He pulled the sleek, brushed nickel, handle and strode through the shift in air pressure with a shaky breath. His back pressed flat against the door, closing it behind him, and he hit the small button on the side of his watch. The holographic menu screen rolled over his forearm- a wash of cool, blue light on warm, tanned skin.

Lance looked up, realizing the room was quieter than usual. The quiet clinks and shuffling usually generated from Matthew going about his work was absent. The engineer hadn’t been at his desk or hunched over a table.

 _Probably in the bathroom_ he thought, before hitting the voicemail button on his arm.

It sounded like someone was under water. There were low rumbling sounds and the audio from the other side was broken and choppy. There were no words, not that he could discern, until a quiet sound escaped the noise;

“.........Lance……...Lance…….it’s me……….”

And then silence.

The white bar that visualized the length of the voicemail ran the rest of its length and then started over.

Lance felt his chest squeeze, forcing his breath out of his mouth in a shaky huff, as he started down at the screen with wide eyes.

It was Takashi.  
It had to be.  
He missed it.  
He missed him.  
No.  
Nononono!

The screen on his arm shook along with him, blurring the light of it, and bleeding the text into white washes of color. The finger of his opposite hand pressed the return call graphic.

Nothing.

He pressed it again, this time hard enough that it dimpled his skin through the screen of projected light.

Nothing.

A prickly heat erupted over his shoulders and neck, sending his stomach into a fit of nausea. The screen wavered again, but this time it was the water welling in his eyes, and he slammed his finger through the graphic a third time.

Still nothing.

A quiet sob escaped his lips as he pressed, and pressed, and pressed, and _pressed_ \- but it wasn’t enough. He missed it. He missed his chance. He missed Takashi trying to reach him and his friend was in trouble. Takashi would be going through it alone, feeling like he could have trusted Lance to be there for him, to help him, and realizing how terribly mistaken he was because- 

“....Lance?”

Matthew’s voice drew him out of his spiral, just enough to make Lance aware that now there was someone else in the room with him. 

“Holy crap, dude. What happened? You okay?”

Lance tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat.

“ _Nnngh-_ ” was all he managed to groan out.

Matthew gripped his shoulders, the look of worry on his face sinking deeper into place. He looked down at Lance’s arm, noting the screen casted from his smart watch. 

“Lance. Talk to me.”

The sales associate looked up from his arm. Blue clashed into amber, a quiet shift of fire into water. Matthew’s eyes bore into him- searching for an answer while his friend struggled for a voice. 

“I….I missed his call….Takashi called me….”

Matthew looked like Lance had kicked him square in the chest. His lips parted, his own voice lost, and Lance could see his thoughts firing behind his gaze. The shock lingered and the hands holding onto Lance’s shoulder went lax. 

“He called you?” Matthew’s voice was quiet, his eye glanced down at Lance’s arm, confused.

“...yeah…”

“How did he… _how?_ ”

“I...gave him my card...before he left.”

Lance choked on another sob when Matthew didn’t reply. The engineer’s eyes stayed trained on the screen of Lance’s smart watch as they fell into silence. The conversations on the sales floor murmured behind them, a babbling stream of sound, but Matthew’s room sat in stark silence. The only sound was Lance’s labored breathing, hitching with cries he never let past his lips, or a strained groaned from the effort it took to keep himself quiet. His cheeks were moist from the steady roll of tears that tore down his face, left to drop from the sharp angle of his chin, and soak into the fabric of his dress shirt. 

Matthew’s eyes stayed trained down and lifted just enough to watch salty tears absorb into expensive fabric, bellowing out into rings of a deeper blue. The spot on Lance’s shirt looked like a stormy sky; grayed and troubled. Another droplet cascaded down to join its brothers and sent the fabric at the center another hue darker. 

“Give me your watch,” he looked up, a determined look on his face, “I’ll take it to Katie.”

“Wha…?”

The rough hands of an engineer cupped Lance’s cheeks. The heat of them against Lance’s chilled skin burned in combination with the brine of his tears, but he didn’t flinch away. Matthew watched Lance’s face carefully, the lost haze he’d been swimming in moments before had left. He looked so sure of himself- as if taking a smart watch, with ten seconds of audio, from an android with no known location, was all he needed to help their friend. 

Was it? Was it enough?

“Is it….is it enough?” He heard himself echo, his voice lilting in the air conditioned air of the repair room, “can we find him?”

“...I don’t know…” Matthew answered honestly,”but it’s all we’ve got. We can’t wait until you’re off of work. Iverson is pretty understanding if I just say it’s a family thing.”

“...R-right…” Lance nodded, shaking more tears loose. 

They pooled along Matthew’s thumbs. 

The sales associate fell still, but quickly realized Matthew had still been looking at him because he was waiting for the watch. Lance lifted his hands to undo the strap of his watch and Matthew let his fall from his friend’s face.

“We have to find him. I can’t- I couldn’t live with myself if-“ he cut himself short, clenching his jaw to hold back a pitiful sound, and held out the watch for Matthew to take.

“We will, Lance,” Matthew assured, tucking the watch into the pocket of his slacks,”just breathe. It’s okay.”

Lance nodded, fisting his fingers so tightly at his sides that it burned in his muscles. He leaned back into the door behind him for the strength he needed to stay upright.

“....y-yeah…”

“You did good. I didn’t even think to give him a contact. You did good, okay?”

“Haah,” a breathless noise, he wished it had been words.

“...dude…” Matthew’s voice sounded sad and Lance squeezed his eyes shut. His head tilted back and rested against the cold surface of the door. 

They stood that way, if only for a moment, and Matthew stepped forward. 

Their chests touched first. Lance could feel it. The world around him still pinched dark behind his eyelids. He felt his sobs shaking against the steady rise and fall of Matthew’s chest. He felt arms, the fabric of Matthew’s shirt warner in comparison from the heater of a human being beneath it, wrapped around his shoulders- still shaking. 

“S-sorry…” his voice trembled.

“Don’t be. It’s alright.” Matthew’s palm rubbed a reassuring circle into the muscle between Lance’s shoulder blades.

“...I’m just...I don’t want it to be my fault…”

“It’s not. It wouldn’t be. Some people suck, man. Most people suck. It’s their fault. It’s this shitty world’s fault. You’re one of the good ones,” the engineer stepped back, his hands on Lance’s shoulders. 

He held him at arm’s length and looked into his waterlogged eyes.

“I’m...I’m _selling_ them.” Lance pleaded- begged for Matthew to blame him.

“People are _buying_ them. Okay? It’s fucked up and confusing- and I’m. Man, I fix them and send them right back. We’ve got...we’ve got to sell our souls. It’s just...it’s just where we’re at….”

Lance laughed breathlessly.

“I wish it wasn’t.”

“.....yeah….me too….” Matthew raised a hand, brushing away a rogue tear on Lance’s face, “but let’s focus on helping Takashi first. We’ll work on saving all of android kind later, okay?” 

Lance laughed, but this time it was real. It traveled deep from his gut and shook the last of the sobs from his chest. 

“Yeah. Yeah, sure. Sounds like a plan.”

Matthew smiled. It was soft and warm.

“I’m going to take your watch to Katie. Meet us at my parents house when you get off of work. You going to be alright?”

“Yeah, man. I’ve got it. I just- it was just a lot all at once. I, uh, I think I just needed to cry? As stupid as that sounds? I feel...like a lot better…”

“Not stupid.” Matthew corrected and patted Lance on the shoulder, “you can use our bathroom back here. Take your time. I got to talk to Iverson anyway- nobody is going to be yelling if you take a bit.”

“Thanks, Matt. Really...you’re a good friend…”

“Anytime, Lance. And you’re not half bad yourself,” Matthew joked, “let’s go save our buddy.”

—————-

 

The remainder of the day passed by in a lackadaisical blur. 

Despite taking his time in the engineer’s bathroom washing his face, and using the hand dryer to clear the tears off of his shirt, Lance felt raw. Every nerve was fried and every ounce of energy he had reserved for the rest of work had been sobbed out into the chilled air of the repairs room. It left him on empty. He could barely fake a smile, barely hold a conversation with much gusto behind it, and as a result he walked away with one sale. 

Lance didn’t care. He just didn’t have the _energy_ to care by the time closing came around. 

Normally on the nights he closed Matthew was around. They’d goof off, play waste bin basketball, and chatter on about their day as they cleaned along side the customer service android. Iverson, who always had a soft spot for family, had let Matthew head to his parents house without much fuss- which left Lance to close on his own. 

The store didn’t feel empty, which was reassuring and unnerving at the same time. He swept, wiped down the counters, and fought with the idea of starting conversation with the android that had been dusting off his counter parts. It felt wrong just working around him now. Usually Matthew would ask him questions or include him in on their jokes, but Lance…

“Hey, can I ask you something?” 

The android paused in his chores, picked a dust bunny off of a shoulder, and turned to face Lance.

“Yes, of course!” He used his customer service voice and Lance shifted uncomfortably. 

Lance chewed on his bottom lip, taking a while to figure out the best way to form his question, and leaned his hips against the counter behind him.

“Do you...do you want to do anything else?” The android tilted his head to the side, looking rightfully perplexed, and Lance continued on to explain himself,”I mean besides...you know...cleaning and customer service type stuff.”

“No,” there had been no hesitation, “I am a customer service android. It is my job to assist Rebel Tech customers and to keep the location clean and organized.”

He said it with a smile.

Lance shifted, uneasy beneath the warm, manufactured, gaze. It didn’t seem like a lie, or a trick, and he wasn’t sure what to make of that. Maybe all androids weren’t just forced to work? Maybe some of them were doing just fine?

The customer service android went back to work, still smiling. 

Lance settled on finishing up his work, the only one aware of the uncomfortable silence as he rambled through his own thoughts, until he quietly set the android in his place for the night, and said his goodbyes. 

It had started to rain outside, nothing more than a cold drizzle at first, but then the sky had opened up as Lance slid himself into the seat of his car. He sighed, staring through the kaleidoscope windscreen at the store front before him. None of the androids moved, just stood, blinking, in complete silence despite standing next to their brothers and sisters. 

He wanted to think of them as human, but it didn’t seem like that was fitting. He wanted it to be as easy as they were all just machines, but he knew that wasn’t true. He liked to think that wasn’t true...in Takashi’s case a least. Maybe he’d been the only one, the only android, to think and feel like that. Maybe Lance just assumed all of them were oppressed. Maybe he’d just spent too much time around Matthew…

_**TWHUMP!!!** _

A hand. 

There was _a palm_ now pressed against the windscreen of his car and Lance nearly burrowed himself backwards into his seat.

“JEEZ-UZ-“ Lance screamed, until his car rocked with the force of a large body slamming into the side of it, “FUCKING CHRIST ON A CRACKEEEEER!!!!”

There were two hands now- and beside him, pressed into the driver side window, was a face. He felt the color leave him in one fell swoop. The area around the car was pitch black, aside from the harsh glow of Rebel Tech’s interior lighting, and he couldn’t see. It was all just dark shadows and LED lights outlining shapes. Whoever had pressed themselves up again the side of his car was almost twice his size. 

The hand on his window could have fit Lance’s entire head in it.

This was it. 

This was how he died; murdered by some stranger, in the parking lot of his morally corrupt job, in the rain.

—

Matthew arrived at the front door of the Holt’s family home, flushed, and looking like he might break down if the wind blew just right. He had grabbed Katie by the arm, despite all of her protests, and led her straight to her bedroom at the end of the hall. She’d been shouting by the time they’d breached her bedroom door- demanding an explanation. Instead all she’d gotten was her older brother half crumbling against her, as he stuffed a smart watch into the palm of her hand, and struggled the get tangible words past the strain in his voice. 

_”Takashi is in trouble. I don’t know what to do Katie...we gotta find him…”_

Katie had all, but physically dissected the voicemail left on Lance’s watch.

All androids had location markers that automatically tagged calls, or messages sent, unless they were shut off- which had been the case with Takashi. (Not surprising.) Matthew had been breathing down her neck as Katie shifted her way through different programs and cybernet domains, trying to get her hands on a work around. The beauty about technology was that as advanced as it got there was always the basic logic of how things worked.

Sure, androids were mind blowing creations; capable, beautifully designed, but when they called people? They were just very cool phones- very cool phones that needed to use cell towers. 

Katie had pulled up more questionably acquired references which led them to a radius, around the cell tower used, where Takashi could have been calling from . The majority of the area had been lower income apartment complexes. Katie was thankful for that bit of knowledge because judging by the sound of moving water and rain...Takashi was outside. 

None of the complexes had pools or water features. There were no bodies of water within their circle, but it was raining. It was raining and Takashi had to of been somewhere with enough elevation changes that any accumulated rain water would _pour_.

Another beautiful happenstance was that as development poured over the earth, in sweeps of construction, most of the natural features went with it. Everything was flat, uniform, cold, and void of personality. Any sort of change in elevation in that area would have to of been manufacture in some form or fashion.

Judging by the sound quality of his voice Takashi had managed some water damage himself which would have been hard for an android unless...unless something pretty extensive happened to him.

She hated the way Matthew’s face dropped. She hated the way he looked sick. Katie wanted to fix it. She _would_ fix it. They just need to _think_.

“What’s that grey?” Matthew pressed his finger to an empty spot on the map, trying to keep the shake out of his voice and failing.

“I dunno...I can figure out what streets border it….maybe find an address for reference…”

Katie’s fingers set to work again, the full thud of her key falls the only sound between them. Matthew had been holding his breath and she could see the tension caught in his shoulders, through his reflection, in the darker sections of her screen. She pulled their visual in closer, scribbling the names of each street down on a post it note she had beside her, in chicken scratch only she could possibly hope to decipher. The youngest Holt immediately set to searching, pulling up the street addresses on apartments further down each road- skipping by twos until-

“It’s a landfill…” she stated breathlessly, fighting the dread in her stomach, and looking to Matthew.

Her brother must have been choking on the same thick, film, of realization. His adam’s apple trembled in his throat as he fought with something she couldn’t see. 

“...i…” he started, squeezed his eyes shut, and took a shaken breath in through his nose, “I’ve got to look for him.”

“Matt...that place is huge….”

“...I know…”

“What if he calls again...we could wai-“

“No.” Matthew interrupted, patting his sister on the shoulder, and turned to navigate his way out of her room, “you keep an eye on the watch. If he calls again, put me on a conference call.”

“...” Katie watched her brother carefully, “please be careful…”

“I’m always careful little sister,” he turned to grin at her from the doorway, but there was nothing behind it.

Katie just frowned and watched her brother leave, fighting with the uneasy feeling in her chest.

She turned back around in her chair when she heard the click of the front door. 

Brown eyes stared at her computer screen, trying to find something to help. Trying to find a fix to whatever disaster her brother, Lance, and this android he cared so much about, found themselves in. 

Over the course of three months the two Rebel Tech employees, turned self appointed rescue squad, had filled her in on the cliff notes of their current predicament. 

Takashi had been the android given the fake AIN number they asked her to decipher. That combined with the fact he’d been designated as a sponsored boxing android, but needed repairs for injuries not related to boxing, was enough to raise a red flag for her brother. 

The first time Takashi had been to Rebel Tech seemed innocent enough. He’d even been dropped off by the CEO and COO of Galra Industries. 

That seemed strange to Katie. The CEO and COO would not be running errands like getting their company sponsored android repaired. It was a show. They wanted to be seen for some reason, but why?

The first time Takashi came in for repairs it had been blunt force trauma to the front his head. That was something easily brushed off as a boxing injury. There was also the case of an arm that had taken heavy enough hits to the forearm that it compromised some of the biocomponents. Once again something easily explained away as defensive wounds or something of that nature. 

The second time Takashi had been dropped off by someone else. 

Plausible deniability for Galra Industries?

The second time Takashi had been brought in; the android’s face had been nearly sliced in half and according to Matthew there had been all manner of injuries over the rest of his body. All things not easily explained away by boxing. 

How were they going to explain the Android Identification Number? A company with nothing to hide wouldn’t be using false identification for their androids.

She supposed they could claim that the android was stolen from them. A stolen...stolen android.

Katie snorted quietly, processing that notion. 

She pulled up the webpage for Galra Industries and had been about to file through the list of board members when a knock against her window drew her attention away. 

Something didn’t feel right.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and light eyes turned to glance at the webpage shining back at her, bathing her desk and chest in a deep maroon color. The timing felt unfortunate, but she swallowed hard, and told herself it was probably the family of mice that lived in the ivy that crept up her window. 

Katie tried to concentrate, tried to read through the names…

 _Morvok…_ she looked to her window.

Nothing.

 _.....Morvo-_ her eyes darted back to the window again.

Still nothing.

“....so stupid…” she grumbled, pushing herself back from her desk, and made her way to the window. 

It was too dark to see anything past her own nervous expression, but nothing moved. She sighed, drawing the curtains closed. 

Katie had been halfway through the perilous trek back to her desk, stepping around the circuit board graveyard, when the unmistakable sound of glass shattering shot through her room. 

She’d turned on her heel, navigating her way further back into the room by muscle memory alone, and faced the intruder that had smashed through her bedroom window. A part of her was glad her parents had gone out for dinner- another part was terrified she’d been caught there alone. Her hand snapped up, hitting the button on the side of her smart watch, hoping to catch her brother before he’d driven too far from home. 

The intruder raised a hand to stop her. The hoodie they’d been wearing to cover their face had been baggy and slid forward far enough that it swallowed up half of their hand. Katie fell still. However, her eyes weren’t trained on the intruder. They were trained just beyond them to the glowing pinprick of light at the center of a pyramid shaped robot she’d spent the greater half of the summer perfecting. 

“Fuck ‘em up, Rover.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys the support in this community is just so amazing! I ended up sick this week and 100% the love from you guys here and on tumblr just kept me in high spirits. You’re all so amazing, kind, and talented.....and....I can’t say it enough- but: Thank you so much !! <3


	6. Styx

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katie faces off with the intruder. Lance has hell to pay. Matthew searches for Takashi.

“HEEEELP!!!” Lance screeched, despite the fact he’d locked himself in his car, in the empty parking lot of Rebel Tech, and no one, but the body that had rushed his car, could hear him, ”holyshit- HEEE-”

“-EEEELP!”

Hold on.

Lance startled, trying to discern if the voice on the other side of his window was mocking his cries for help- or if they...were they….?

“WAIT! PLEASE!” The fist pounding against his windscreen subsided and whoever had been clinging to the side of his car had now managed to get to their feet. 

“....w-wait?” Lance’s voice was quiet, but still skirted the edges of his earlier hysterics,”who...the fuck?”

“Are you Matthew?” Their voice was muffled by the glass of his window, but Lance didn’t dare move. The sales associate sat frozen in his seat and watched the unfamiliar face looking back at him from its place in the rain. 

Blue eyes shifted, taking in the soaked bangs that hung over a neatly tied bandana. They hung on the sides of their face like heavy curtains and, as he looked to the soft brown of the stranger’s eyes, he slowly moved his hand to the window control panel. With how dark it had been outside it was hard to see, but he could make out that they’d been sporting a yellow shirt- which wasn’t a typical “murder people in a parking lot” color.

“Dude, come on! Are you Matthew? Or...uh...crud….what was it?…. _Lance_?” 

The stranger must have seen the flash of recognition in Lance’s eyes because he’d smiled, the rounded edges of their cheeks pushing up at the corners of their eyes.

“LANCE!? You’re Lance?!” The stranger threw their arms up in relief and Lance had to steady himself on the interior car when he’d seen how massive their arms were- fear struck through his heart a second time.

This...guy...was a terrifying size. 

He wasn’t anywhere near as tall as that android from Galra Industries had been, but it was easy enough to see this man was a walking bulldozer. He was stout, but thick in a way that said he could very easily pop your head off like a bottle rocket if he squeezed hard enough. 

“Hey, can you like,” the man leaned back towards the window, pointing a meaty finger down at the window control panel where Lance’s hand still rested, “I’m screaming out here.”

Lance swallowed hard, slid his fingers half way down the touch screen, and watched as the glass of the window dropped to half mast. 

The man wasted no time resting heavy forearms on the glass as he leaned closer. The curve of his teeth glinted in Rebel Tech’s light as he smiled and he let a relaxed sigh fall from his lips. Lance leaned his body as far away from the window as he could manage, eyeing the man cautiously from the center console of his car. 

“Thank, literally, any god that is listening out there because- _man_ ,” he paused, nodding his head, breathing heavy, “I caught you by the skin of my teeth, dude.” 

He waved an arm carelessly behind him, motioning to the street that streaked with rain water rivers. 

“I freaking sprinted. And then? When I tripped? _Whew!_ it was like...am I having a nightmare right now? Because this? This feel like a freaking nightmare.”

“....uh….right…..” he replied slowly, still leaning into his passenger seat, “...so, what did you need to catch me for again?”

The parking lot lurker paused. His eyes went wide like he’d only just realized how insane slamming into the side of someone’s car, with no explanation whatsoever, in the pouring rain, at nine o’clock at night, actually was. 

“Oh! Crap, sorry. Takashi sent us this way. Well, not exactly t-“

“Takashi!?”

“Yeah, man. He sai-“

“Is he okay!?”

“...I...I dunno. I kinda hoped he made it to you guys,” the man frowned and Lance felt his gut go ice cold, “I stopped seeing him around a while ago. He’d been telling some people that if they needed to find help- or a safe place, or whatever, head to Rebel Tech. He mentioned some guy named Matthew and you. Lance, right? Wait. You are...actually Lance, right? I kinda just assumed ‘cause you had this face like; “Whoa, how do you know name?”, but you also looked like you were crapping your pants? It’s possible I just, y’know, mixed those up or something…”

Lance shook his head, then nodded, unsure of how he was suppose to answer all of that. 

His mind filtered through the information. Takashi hadn’t been wherever Galra Industries was keeping him. The fact that it had been “a while ago” was less reassuring. Why hadn’t he come straight to him and Matt? Maybe he did, but something happened?

How long had he been trying to reach Lance…?

“Wait...someplace safe?”

The man nodded. 

“Yeah, dude. Y’know…” he lifted the edge of his bandana, revealing the glow of an LED on his temple, and lowered his voice, “for androids.”

Blue eyes went wide and Lance turned to look into the window of Rebel Tech. There, behind spotless glass, stood the customer service android. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t acknowledged the situation in the parking lot just a few feet away from the front of the store. His LED just rotated an easy pale blue. Situated around him, on display, were the handful of replaceable bodies to be sold.

This wasn’t a safe place. 

Lance wasn’t a good enough person to be dealing with all of this. He’d been questioning if androids were even people less than five minutes ago and, as he stared at vacant eyes, he still questioned it. When he turned back to face the android hunkered in his car window the man had his hands raised, like he was trying to calm a scared animal.

“Listen. If you’re going to start screaming again-“

“I’m not going to scream!” Lance bit out, slamming his hand on the panel to open the doors, “hop in.”

The android straightened up, stepping back from the driver side window, and smiled as the doors slid open. Lance could see the elation on his face as his seat swiveled to face the inside of the car. He sighed, silently thankful for the reprieve from the eyes of Rebel Tech’s androids.

The parking lot android hunkered down, trying to gracefully maneuver himself through car doors that were annoying for normal sized people to navigate- let alone someone with so much solid bulk. The android shuffled past dragging a wet streak along the upholstered ceiling. 

“Sorry, I’m totally soaked.”

“No worries,” Lance smiled, watching as the android settled into the passenger seat, “...what do you do?”

The android laughed, patting his thighs with heavy hands, as the doors of the vehicle slid closed. Their chairs swiveled forward soon after. 

“You mean; why’d they make me like this?”

Lance nodded, feeling the heat of embarrassment on the skin of his cheeks. Humans just happened to end up the way they were, but androids were all specifically designed for a purpose, or an aesthetic. The parking lot android didn’t just end up looking like a linebacker by chance. 

“I’m cute!” He continued with a bright smile, “non-threatening.”

“...uh...that’s...relative.”

“Nah, you just met the soaking wet, in the dark, slamming into the side of your car, in a dirty parking lot, version of Hunk. The rosy cheeked, big smile, apron wearing, greatest chef, best hugs, engineered to specifically make you feel like I’m a walking, talking, cinnamon bun with a gooey center Hunk? That guy is a freaking pro,” he placed a palm over his heart, “and, if I say so myself, pretty freaking adorable.” 

Lance laughed, punching in the address for Matthew’s parent’s house.

“I’ve never met an android with so much self esteem before.”

“I’m just being objective. I mean, technically, it’s not self esteem? It’s fanboying over the work of whoever made me. I literally woke up like this? No work required on my part. There’s not really anything for me to be...esteem-y about, y’know?”

“Uh...I guess?”

Hunk, he’d said his name was Hunk at least, shrugged looking out the windscreen of the car as it started to pull itself out of Lance’s parking spot. 

The car fell into silence, but Hunk didn’t seem at peace with it. He’d shifted uncomfortably in his chair, made comments about the weather, flipped through radio stations, and chanced glances at Lance whenever he thought the sales associate wasn’t looking. 

“You okay?” Lance asked, looking away from the street unfurling in front of them to get a good visual on the fidgeting android beside him. 

“Who? Me? Yeah! Yeah, I am..totally fine,” that had to be a lie, “peachy even!”

It was a lie. 

Hunk’s eyes quickly turned away from Lance and settled back on the view in front of them. Lance narrowed his eyes, watching the android’s face. Something was up. It didn’t feel dangerous, but there was something was definitely on Hunk’s mind. 

“So, uh…” the android shifted in his seat, looking to Lance again out of the corner of his eye, “...what’s like…I dunno...your whole view on androids, I guess. Like- _why_ are you and this Matt guy the “safe” dudes?”

Lance frowned, pulling the skin of his lower lip between his teeth in thought. 

“Honestly, I don’t really know what I think,” he could see Hunk tense up in his seat, but he continued anyway, “I keep getting mixed information. Takashi is _definitely_ a person, y’know? But when I talked to our service android at work he just seemed...like he wasn’t there. If that makes any sense.”

“That’s crazy isn’t it?” Hunk replied with a laugh.

The sales associate blinked, raising an eyebrow as he turned to fully regard Hunk. It wasn’t what he expected. He expected Hunk to be angry that Lance had any question about the validity of android existence. A part of him awaited the harsh judgement he deserved for not being like Matt. He wanted the verification, the permission, to continue hating himself for not being as good of a person as he should have been, but…

“Some guys don’t have a single thought that isn’t just dictated by a bunch of 1s and 0s. I guess, like your store’s android. I’m kinda...I dunno…still thinking about it. I’m not sure why I don’t think like everyone else...or why Takashi doesn’t...I know I am like- not a person. Definitely a machine- which is pretty cool,” he tapped his finger to his lips in thought, “it’s just really interesting that we’re all made the same way, and tested the same way, but then you’ve got these outliers just strolling around with _opinions_ and stuff. Super weird...”

Hunk turned and smiled at Lance. It could have been what Hunk had said earlier, that he was just manufactured to feel safe, like a friend, but Lance didn’t stop the smile that stirred on his own lips in response.

 

—

 

“Who 

 

 

 

you?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do 

 

 

want?

 

 

“Rov 

 

r

 

 

 

 

 

 

wake h m up.”

 

-

The broken glass from the window sat scattered across Katie’s carpet like stars. The granules sparkled in the light of her desk lamp and crunched beneath the soles of the sneakers she’d put on to protect her feet. The intruder more than likely figured she had been alone in the house. It wouldn’t have been hard to conclude when the only light on was her bedroom lamp. The problem was that, contrary to the man’s initial belief, Katie was never alone in the house.

Bae Bae wasn’t exactly a guard dog and never had been. When Matt moved out to his own place Katie hadn’t felt safe, left home alone, when her parents went out to dinner or on trips. The easiest solution to this problem was to _make_ a guard dog.

Katie had been locked away in her room for over a week, all those months ago, tinkering away. She’d only surfaced when lured out with the promise of her favorite meal; grilled cheese and tomato soup. She’d eat, slink right back into her cave, and continue her tireless work for the ultimate home protection. She wanted the perfect guard dog- that wasn’t going to slobber up the front windows, or lick a burglar to death. 

And that perfect, clever, artfully crafted little guy was “Rover.”

Rover looked like nothing more than a pyramid shaped oil diffuser, but in reality he packed more punch than some of the high end tasers on the market, and Katie had unleashed that electrical storm on the complacent son of bitch that had thought smashing into _her_ house was a good idea.

The hooded figure had been taller than her, but they didn’t look like they carried much weight. She was unpleasantly surprised to find that the intruder was actually denser than a neutron star. Dragging the unconscious body seemed like an asinine mission, so instead she’d rolled her desk chair over, and proceeded to duct tape them to it. Katie had made fast work of his feet and wrists, before moving onto his chest and arms. She’d never had to duct tape anyone to a chair before, but by now she’d seen enough movies that it was pretty obvious what it was you were suppose to do. 

It had taken her a few minutes to consider tapping his mouth. She needed them to talk- so it seemed a little over kill. Then again...they did break her window.

 _“That’s what you get for underestimating me,”_ she’d cooed, slapping the streak of unforgiving tape over chapped lips, and pulling the strings of their hoodie until the hood closed over their face. Katie practiced her line of questioning while he sat unconscious, trying to find the best way of getting information out of him. Galra Industries wasn’t a joke- this guy was probably a killing machine. 

 

 

“Rover, wake him up.”

 

 

Rover had fluttered over, the putter of his pneumatics sounding as he stabilized himself beneath the intruders nose- the only thing sticking out of the tied off hood. Katie nodded, giving him the go ahead, and as expected Rover released a puff of air from his top corner. 

The man immediately jolted up where he sat taped to the chair. The jerk of his weight sent the desk chair into a chorus of creaks and sounds of protest. He coughed and the tears, that would have been in the corners of his eyes, dripped down the small expanse of skin not covered by his drawn hood.

“Yeah, ammonia will do that to ya,” Katie spoke up and it felt cool, “comfortable?”

So friggin’ cool. 

She could see the muscle in his arms and chest flex beneath the soaked fabric of his hoodie as he tried to asses himself. Then the meat of his legs jumped as he tried to test his legs. Katie felt anxiety raise in her chest and wondered if she had done everything right. She swallowed, trying to keep her nerves under control as the man thrashed around in his seat, but slowly found herself relaxing when his efforts proved futile. 

The youngest Holt rode that confidence into her next questions.

“Who are you? Who sent you?”

There was a long hiss of exasperated air from her prisoner’s nose and she’d realized the tape was still in place, tucked away beneath the fabric of the puckered hood. Rover swiveled off to the side, hovering just behind the man’s shoulder as Katie stepped forward and set to untying the hoodie’s strings. 

When she pushed the fabric back a tousled mane of jet black hair sprung up, cow licks sending dark locks in different directions. Beneath the heavy veil of soaking wet bangs, a pair of eyes glared up at her. The color gave her pause. They’d looked like some of the raspberry tourmaline samples her father had, but she quickly snapped to her senses, and yanked the tape from his mouth. 

She instantly regretted it.

“LET ME OUT!” He spat, trying to scoot his way closer to Katie with jerky motions. 

“What!? No! Who. Are. You?”

She watched the man’s face damp and flush with anger. Whoever he was he seemed wildly unprepared, or prepared, but definitely too reckless. It was like busting through her window had been his first step in a one step plan. There was no back up- or some kind of contingency if he’d been incapacitated. Sure, most people easily underestimated a five foot nothing computer whiz when it came to the physical realm of things, but for a guy sent by Galra Industries he seemed….civilian. 

“You think you’re real clever, huh?!” He was still yelling, but the knowing smirk on his lips was unsettling, “you stalk me around cybernet for a year, block me out of your systems, but then you go and make one… _stupid_...mistake. You got cocky. Sloppy. Just like you are now…”

Katie blinked, carefully looking to Rover with a confused frown on her face, before she looked back to the venomous glare of the man she’d taped to her chair.

“Don’t play dumb with me. I know who you are! All that time hiding behind your stupid jokes...trying to throw me off like you’re just sitting at some store...but then I caught it. You screwed up big time taking your fucking watch-“

 

“....watch…..?”

“-back to a system I already knew.” He continued like she hadn’t even spoken, bathing victoriously in the realization in her eyes. A feral smirk stretched his mouth, the defined curve of his canines pressing into his bottom lip, a dark smoke curling dangerously behind his eyes. 

 

“...shit….” Katie gasped, turning away from her prisoner, and heading for the desk where Lance’s watch sat on the note pad beside her computer.

She’d been fighting off ED2929 for over a year. He’d been clever, quick, and whatever areas he fell short in were more than compensated for by sheer determination to get what he was after. He must have been following the information off of Lance’s watch, but she couldn’t understand how he’d found Lance’s watch in order to track it in the first place. Even more concerning was how had he found Katie’s system through it.

Brown eyes flicked over to a symbol at the top right corner of the sleek screen and her stomach dropped.

 

**  
__

_She remembered; It had been a lazy afternoon at the Holt’s. Katie, Matt, and Lance had become easy friends and spent some of the slower days sprawled around Katie’s room._

_“...hey, you mind if I connect to you guys? I’ve been burning up a my plan watching cat videos at work…”_

_“Yeah, sure. Gimme your watch. It’s hidden- so I have to search it by name and put the password in. Just easier if I do it,” Katie held her hand out, but Lance hesitated._

_“Uh….”_

_She raised an eyebrow, giving the man curled up at the foot of her bed an amused smile._

_“What? I’m not going looking for your nude pictures. Nobody wants to see that.”_

_“Bold of you to assume I have nude pictures.” Lance countered, sticking his tongue out._

_“Psh, please. You scream “takes picture of himself flexing after a shower, knowing you look freaking perfect, and saying something stupid like; feeling fat today. Frowny face.”_

_“....f-fuck off. MATT! YOUR SISTER IS MEAN!”_

_Matt had been laying on his stomach a foot or two away from Katie’s computer desk, refitting a casing on one of their project robots, and chimed in with a quick;_

_“You’re just mad she’s already got you figured out~”_

__

**

….shit….of course Lance wouldn’t have been as careful as she was….

The chair that ED2939 had been strapped to creaked and when she turned to look at him, expecting to find a satisfied smirk, she found an empty chair instead. 

“Wha…”

A dark streak of movement shot into her peripheral and out of sheer instinct of moving away, Katie had half thrown herself onto her desk, knocking away pens and hardware. 

A second flash of dark, arching, movement and she’d thrown her arms up to block her face. Something blunt and hard crashed into the bones of her forearms. She cracked an eye open, pushing against the weight bearing down on her. 

It was ED2939, she spotted the clean slices on the the duct tape around his wrist, but whatever he’d used wasn’t in his hands. 

“What the hell are you doing?!” She screamed, a gamey leg jerking up to try and push him off.

“YOU ATTACKED ME!” He shot back, moving to grab a hold of her wrists, but she kicked wildly in response. 

“YOU BROKE THROUGH MY FUCKING WINDOW!” The sole of her shoe slammed into the meat of his cheek and he’d instantly recoiled with a sharp hiss.

Katie blinked, pushing herself upright on top of her desk and shuffling back against the wall. Her chest heaved and her heart ached, slamming into her ribs. Brown eyes, wide from the adrenaline, stared at ED2939 as he gingerly touched his fingertips to where she’d kicked him. 

They came away slick with blood and she felt her stomach drop.

A sharp pebble of glass hung lazily at the curve of his jaw, caught in the cut that streaked down his cheek. 

“...Shit- I didn’t mean to-“

He growled from where he stood in her room, droplets of blood colliding with the plush, beige, carpet below and soaking into the fibers. Katie took a shallow breath, immediately seeking out Rover. He’d been hovering close, but unable to provide any real assistance. Katie had fitted him with the taser system, but it needed to be reloaded, and that was time consuming. She was so sure she’d had him secure...she didn’t-

ED2939 lurched forward. He snatched Katie by the ankle. He pulled and she swung her arms wide looking for a place to find purchase. Thin fingers gripped the side of the desk and the lip of it behind her head, but ED2939 gave one ferocious yank. It sent her body lifting where it was caught between the resistance of her hands and his force.

She’d felt her legs cross, her hips rotate, and her arms crossed at the elbows as he’d twisted. Her finger slid off the side of the desk and her stomach fell hard onto the desktop. Before Katie could collect herself a hand had pressed into the side of her head, pushing her cheek into the desk top. She swung behind her, but he’d caught her hand, and twisted it up behind her back in a hammer lock that he’d pinned down with the weight of his forearm.

“What the hell is your problem!?” She shouted, livid now.

Katie glared forward, unable to move her head with it pinned, with enough heat behind it she was surprised the sample of stone in front of her hadn’t started to-

That’s it.

Her free hand shot forward like a viper strike, gripping the large chunk of quartz resting on the back corner of her desk, and swung behind her with all of her might.

The only sound in the room was the soft sound of collision.

Katie wasn’t sure what she’d hit, but once the body behind her slumped forward, it was an easy guess. 

——

The frantic scratching of Bae Bae’s nails against wood floors pulled up in a storm of noise deeper in the house and Katie quickly lifted herself from the spot at the foot of her bed. Matt must have found Takashi and she was eager to meet the android that had been consuming most of their thoughts for the last three months. 

When Katie rounded the corner she could see Bae Bae had already started to slam her snout against the small crease between the door and the moulding. Beneath the loud hiss of her sniffing Katie could hear two voices mumbling between each other on the other side. It was a relief to know Takashi had still been well enough off to be holding a conversation. 

She grabbed the purple collar slopping around in the rolls at Bae Bae’s neck and pulled the dog far enough back that she could open the door.

“Hey, Katie…”  
“OH. Mygod. You didn’t tell me she was _sausage_!” Came an overjoyed squeal.

Katie blinked, staring up at a pair of familiar blue eyes, before shifting to the warm brown pair fixated on Bae Bae. 

“Uh…,” she stated dumbly, still half hunched over and holding the lab at bay, “....Lance…?”

“That’s my name! Don’t wea-“ The sales associate had been cut short as the screen door swung open with enough speed that it had nearly taken the tip of his nose off. His eyes went wide and he stumbled back a step only to be yanked forward by his tie.

“ _YOU_ ,” she growled, the sounds of gravel deep in her throat.

Lance’s eyes went wide and he raised his hands in surrender. Hunk on the other hand seemed to completely dismiss the fact that Lance was staring death in the eye and had moved on to rubbing Bae Bae furiously. 

_”Look at you, you big mush!”_

“W-WHAT!? ME WHAT!?”

_”Who is a good girl!? Who’s a good girl?!”_

“You’ve been talking to ED2939 for _months_ and didn’t think to say something!?”

_”Yes, yes, so many kisses, all the kisses!”_

Lance froze, caught and unsure of what to say next, but Katie saved him the trouble- yanking him down to her level by the tie she had viced in her hand.

“....you were egging this asshole on...with your stupid dick measuring, arguing, bullshit, and you know what?”

_”ohmygodyouaresocuteiamliterallygoingtojustshutdown.”_

“.....w-what….?” Lance squeaked. 

_”I’m stealing you. You’re my dog now. Do you want to live with Uncle Hunk? YES!? Yes, you do!”_

“He got into our systems because of your stupid watch! And then he broke through my freaking window, thinking I was you! And-”

_”Belly rubs! Belly rubs! BELLY R-“_

“WILL YOU STOP WITH FREAKING DOG ALREADY!?” Katie screeched.

Hunk froze and slowly looked up at Katie with wide eyes. Bae Bae, however, continued to wiggle with the force of a thousand suns between the man’s hands, licking at his face every other turn around. Lance swallowed hard, trying to crane his head back enough that his tie, in Katie’s tiny hand, didn’t act as a makeshift noose. 

“S-sorry,” Hunk coughed, moving to stand up, and tried his best to avoid making any sort of eye contact.

Light brown eyes turned away from Hunk with a snap and zeroed in on Lance.

“He’s in my room,” she hissed, before turning on her heel and walking back into the house- not waiting for the man she had on a _very_ short leash. 

Lance stumbled forward, the toe of his dress shoe catching on the lip of the front door, and tried his best not to fall over himself. He’d been bent at a ninety degree angle at the waist and every now and again his hand would snap out to steady himself against a wall or a piece of furniture. Bae Bae happily bounced on her back legs as she walked with them and tried to get a clear shot at Lance’s face. She hadn’t greeted her beloved nap friend, too occupied with her new petting friend, and of course that needed to be rectified. Hunk shuffled in behind them all, gently closing the front door, and hung his head like a scolded child. 

“Who’s your friend?” Katie asked warily, not looking back to either of the boys trailing after her. 

“His name is Hunk. He-“ a stumble cut him short, but Lance regained his footing and continued, “he knows Takashi.”

Her eyebrows raised in surprise and she looked over her shoulder at the man following after Lance like an oversized puppy.

“Hey! Nice to meet you. Katie, right?” The android tried, but his efforts were met with an annoyed hum of confirmation. 

“Where’s Matt?” Lance managed to breathe past the squeeze of his tie.

“He went to get Takashi.”

“You found him!?” 

This time Katie turned fully around, releasing Lance’s tie, and stood full mast with her hands on her hips. Her mouth had been skewed up in righteous indignation and she all but set the sales associate on fire with the look in her eyes. Lance casted a nervous glance to her bedroom door behind her, sending up a silent prayer that she’d just turn around and drag them inside without tearing him apart, but-

“Of course I did! And _you_ ” she punctuated her words with a finger poked square in the center of Lance’s chest, “don’t get to sound surprised about _my_ ability to do _anything_ when _your_ dumbass leads conspiracy theory sociopaths TO MY FUCKING HOUSE!”

“...harsh…” Hunk frowned and layed a heavy hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, okay?! I didn’t know! What do you want me to do!?” 

The youngest Holt reached behind her, grabbed the brushed nickel door knob, and pushed the door open. Her eyes had been trained on Lance the entire time, unmoving, unwavering, drilling holes into him. 

“Fix it.” She snapped, stepping aside in order to give Lance enough room to clean up his mess. 

Lance blinked, looking from Katie to the familiar landscape of her room. There was broken glass kicked about on the floor. He could see trails of it arching towards her desk. His attention lifted to the rock sitting on the corner of it, smeared with a deep red colour, and his eyes slowly drifted back to Katie. If he hadn’t been scared of her before; he was now.

“D-did you kill him…?”

There was no reply, just a short arm jerked in the direction of her room, and a deepening scowl on a freckled face. 

Lance swallowed hard and he stepped forward. Hunk didn’t seem to be coming. The uncomfortable whine from the android at his back was enough to let Lance know there was a decent possibility he was going into this murder den alone. 

As he stepped over the threshold he could see a body duct taped to Katie’s desk chair. His eyes went wide as he followed up the line of their body. She’d duct taped their ankles which made sense, but as his eyes traveled upwards he could see she’d taped his thighs to the seat of the chair. It had been tight enough that the fabric of his jeans bunched around the sliver strips. She’d taped his wrists to the arms of the chair- which was pretty commonplace (He’d seen enough movies), but what he wasn’t expecting to find was the man’s hands had been taped into the shape of mittens. A small laugh escaped his lips, but it was more from the uneasy feeling of animosity being drilled into his back and less from the visual of duct tape mittens. 

Blue eyes scanned over the tape across his chest, dimpling the fabric of his black hoodie, and as his eyes lifted to the sharp curve of his chin, Lance paused. This didn’t seem right.

Lance had imagined what ED2939 must have looked like over the last few months. Every version pinballed between a bratty thirteen year old kid or the typical conspiracy theory creep, living in the desert, and wearing tin foil hats archetype. He realized objectively ED2939 had been too smart to ever be a thirteen year old kid. ED2939 had been sharp, but easy enough to throw into a fit of childish bickering. 

It was fun. That was probably why Lance found himself drawn to his watch on the nights he couldn’t sleep.

His gaze lifted even further to the tape over his mouth, the upward flick of a delicate nose, and the soft swoop of cheekbones flush from the effort of whatever battle had taken place earlier. There was a cut down his right cheek, but the blood had coagulated enough that it stayed put.

ED2939 didn’t look anything like he’d expected. It felt surreal putting faceless text to an actual person.

“.....Oh no….” Lance breathed.

“What?” Hunk’s voice carried from the hallway, terrified. 

“.....he’s hot….”

When the sales associate turned to look over his shoulder, a wide grin spread his lips, and he bounced his eyebrows- clearly making light of the situation.

“....I hate you so much…” Katie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose between her pointer finger and thumb. 

The computer whiz stepped forward into the room and grabbed Lance by the ear as she passed. Lance squirmed, yelping in pain, and worked on trying to free his ear from the formidable pinch it had been caught in, but Katie held fast.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I WAS KIDDING! I’ll be serious! Katie don’t- OW! KATIE STOP! OW!”

Hunk warily leaned forward to get a peek into the room, trying to get a visual on the proclaimed sociopath, and relaxed a degree when he’d seen that Katie managed to secure him.

“Oh! Whew, he’s tied up,” the android sighed, following after the bickering pair. 

“Wake him up, Rover.” 

On Katie’s command the robot whizzed to life from beneath her bed and the sound that had left Hunk’s lips bordered somewhere between a squeal and an all out yell of absolute delight. Katie blinked, turning to face him with questioning eyes, and Lance winced at the volume. 

“Holy crow! What is _that_?” He intercepted the robots trajectory, causing Rover to putter back a foot or two, his hands hovered about- not given permission to touch yet. 

“Uh...that’s...Rover…”

“I can’t believe this little guy,” Hunk looked to Katie, his eyes begging for permission to explore her creation. 

She nodded, shrugging her shoulders, but watched him with a keen interest despite the blasé air about her.

“Nobody makes these anymore! He’s like a nod to throwbacks, but at the same time, these components are some of the stuff they use in androids! Tell me he’s this exact size because-“

“-he’s got an android core, yeah!”

“That’s brilliant! It would fit perfectly, but still have-“

“-enough space for it to breathe in the corners.”

“The programming had to be insane...did you?”

“I did,” Katie confirmed.

“Woooow,” Hunk drawled with no attempt to hide the awe in his voice or the look of respect on his face.

Lance looked between Hunk and Katie and there was just something about the mutual spark in their eyes that made him feel-

“Gross.” He grumbled, turning his attention back to Katie’s prisoner with a frown. Deft fingers pried Katie from his ear and Lance stepped closer to ED2939. 

He frowned, pushing the man’s head to the side enough that he could get a good look at his face. Dark bangs drifted over his forehead and Lance pursed his lips, lifting ED2939’s eyelid open with his pinky finger. He knelt down, looking at his opened eye, and curiously taking in the plum color that swam in a deeper cranberry.

Rover managed to free himself from Hunk’s grasp, while he and Katie talked, and dutifully went about his orders to wake up ED2939. Lance hadn’t moved from his spot in front of ED2939, but when the puff of air left Rover’s peak he’d nearly thrown himself through Katie’s legs to get away from the smell. 

ED2939 woke up with a strangled choking sound. His body convulsed beneath the strips of tape, sending the office chair into a chorus of creaks. Katie had stepped back from Lance, untangling his long limbs from her legs, and pushed him forward with the toe of her shoe.

“Huuunnngh,” ED2939 gasped, blinking the tears from his eyes, and shook his head as he came fully to his senses.

Instantly, peculiar eyes narrowed into a feral glare. Lance didn’t know what to think about ED2939, but he did find himself relieved that he’d been restrained. The duct tape mittens creaked, he must have tried to move his hands, and Lance could see the confusion flash across his face.

“Let’s try this again,” Katie sighed.

ED2939 grumbled behind the tape over his mouth and Katie stepped forward, catching her nail beneath the corner of the duct tape, and pulled it off in one, swift, pull.

-

The car doors slid closed behind Matthew with a quiet hiss, the sound swallowed up by the pound of raindrops against the pavement that lined the walls of the landfill. The sky overhead was a storm of slate blue with whispers of lightning behind billowing cloud. The concrete beneath his feet echoed the same stark lack of color, the world around him constructed from things forgotten with the life bled out, the color bled out, and left a hopeless landscape. 

The engineer sidestepped a pot hole in the black pavement of the road as he walked. Clouded amber stared up at daunting concrete walls as he wandered the perimeter, checking for a way in. 

He could see heaps of bodies piled higher that the walls made to contain them. There was no concerned with keeping people out. This was a graveyard- nothing of any value lay inside the black, dying, spot on a speckled map. Matthew felt a shiver slink across his shoulders as he watched a single hand rise from the crest of a hill, reaching for the sky. The artificial skin had been torn away, or phased off, leaving the filthy white of android skeleton exposed. The paneling spoke of an older model than Takashi, but that hadn’t kept the sick in his stomach at bay.

The forbidding concrete wall gave way to a rusted chain link fence and Matthew pressed the toe of his shoe to the bottom, searching for an easy way under. The bottom of the fence gave way towards the center, detached from the base wire that ran along the bottom. Matthew inhaled, lowering himself to the ground on his side of the fence, and pushed the loose section forward enough to avoid having the trimmed edges slicing into his back as he went.

The mud and filth was cold against the fabric of his shirt. He tried to ignore how much it smelled of stale Thirium and squeezed his eyes closed, crawling forward on his stomach. He pitched his toes into the soft earth and pushed himself forward, using the lip of the sidewalk behind him as leverage. 

Slop and wet earth hung heavy on his clothes as Matthew shifted to stand up, kicking what was left of the fence back off of his legs. 

He was met with a wall of bodies on the other side.

Often times Matthew had little faith in people. It was hard to in their day and age when so much seemed to be going so wrong. They killed off elephants and polar bears, replacing them with android versions- allowed to shrug off the severity of their carelessness. He watched people pushing around their androids in the street, demanding things from them, ridiculing them for the slightest mistakes. There was always war; over race, or religion, or land, or space. Russia and America had been fighting over Antarctica for years now. Now they were shooting claims of foul play and sunken submarines, with entire crews aboard, and all they could seem to talk about was the monetary cost. 

More often than not Matthew thought this world would have been better off without them. He apologized on behalf of his fellow human beings more often than he could count to the androids in his repair room, but now?

He stared up at a wall of intelligent life packed upon each other in heaps of despair and he knew he’d never be able to apologize enough.

He was ashamed for all mankind. 

He wouldn’t blame any android if they ever grew to hate them.

They _should_ hate them.

With that anger he pushed forward, into the man made fjord of waste, and down the path of Thirium soaked mud rushing past his ankles. With that anger he tried to push out the panicked thoughts that he may never find Takashi in these heaps and-

A hand had reached for him from one of the heaps, the movements were slow, jerky, and Matt came to a stop. Worn, alloy fingers stretched forward like they could feel him there despite the owner of the hand being buried away.

The engineer watched in silence, a sunken expression slipping across his face. He watched the raindrops beading up along the arching fingers, slipping down a beaten wrist, and pooling in the deep gashes.

It looked so alone despite being surrounded by hundreds- thousands of its brothers and sisters. 

Matthew’s hand lifted from his side, gingerly reaching forward until the soft flesh of his own fingertips met the cold, unforgiving, surface of the Android’s. He’d expected the hand to pull away, but instead their fingers parted. The engineer felt his breath halt in his chest and he wrapped the cold alloy of the androids hand in his own and held it.

It all felt so lonely and hopeless, cold in a way he’d never had to experience until that moment- holding the hand of something dying. That cold ached deep down in the marrow of his bones. 

He stayed that way, offering the android what it needed, what it reached from its grave. He knew that whoever had sent this android here hadn’t turned off it’s temperature receptors by the way the hand squeezed, trying to soak up the warmth of Matthew’s hand. This android could have been here for years, slowly breaking down, and _feeling_ that cold, the sweltering heat of summer, the damp despair of storms and the cool press of other dead bodies. 

It was searching for something warm- the compassion it was owed. 

The android’s hand squeezed tighter, not threatening, but so incredibly desperate Matthew felt his heart ache.

And slowly, very slowly, the pressure of that marred hand lifted, and hung limply in Matthew’s grip.

The warm sting of tears lifted along his bottom lashes, but if they’d crashed down his cheeks he couldn’t tell, everything lost in the heavy fall of rain. He raised his opposite hand, gripping the android’s hands so tightly the muscles in his forearms shook. A sob broke past his lips in a sharp bark of sound and Matthew hunched forward pressing his forehead to the back of the hand hanging in his- knowing there were countless more that reached, or prayed, for some kind of warmth from this world and never received it.

The proof was all around him; bleeding, wailing, sobbing, grasping, dying. 

He could only hope Takashi hadn’t joined them. 

The engineer choked on sobs heaving through his chest and he’d somehow found the strength to let go of the hand of a stranger. He wanted to fix this. He wished this was never a reality he lived in, a reality he let happen. How could anyone stand back and watch this happening? How did he go about his job, eat dinner with his family, when _this_ was alway going on?

It wasn’t _fair_.

There was no justice- not in a world like this.

Matthew stumbled forward in the mud, shifting his shoulders to fit through the uneven walls of bodies on either side of him. More arms reached, more hands stirred to life by the sound of him, and he’d stopped for one, for two. Some hands were angry, some arms attached to bodies- attached to heads that still held the cognitive ability to hate him for what he was. He cried his apologizes, but no matter how violent the sobs came or how much guilt he carried with him through the valley of their death it wouldn’t fix anything- it couldn’t.

“WHY!?” He’d heard the garbled voice for most of his trek, far off in the grey mass of the landfill, but as he pushed further towards the center, it grew louder. 

The older androids were deposited around the landfill in a horseshoe pattern, leaving the oldest to lay on the perimeter, and the new arrivals to sit at the center. Takashi would have been closer to the center, but that also meant that more intact androids were starting to speckle the desolate landscape. 

“I DID EVERYTHING I WAS ASKED!”

Matthew flinched beneath the pain in those screams.

“HOW COULD THEY!? HOW COULD THEY!?”

The voice was close, around the next corner, but Matthew paused and leaned back against the wall of bodies behind him. He needed to breathe. He needed fresh air, but all his lungs could pull was the heavy scent of Thirium and the smokey burn of short circuited bio components. 

“....where are you…?” Matthew pleaded more than asked, begging for some salvation of his own. 

He needed to turn the corner, but the idea of facing the android on the other side, filthy, and bathed in the humanity that left it there, held fast to his ankle like a ball and chain. 

Matthew tugged, yanking himself from the mud and the dread in his gut. He trudged forward, turning the corner to find a half buried mouth, sitting far enough out of the mud at his feet to wail it’s heart out into the sky above. 

“WHAT DID I DO!?” It cried and Matthew shivered.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, valiant against the rain’s effort to pummel everything flat, and he kept pushing forward. Amber eyes watched his feet carefully as he started to step around it.

“Who’s there?” The mouth asked and he froze, “I feel...I feel something moving. Who’s there!?”

Matthew bit his bottom lip, his eyes turning to the sky as he willed himself to not so much as breathe. 

“...please…” it begged, bare, white lips dispersing earth.

He bit down on a sob and urged his legs to move. They did, but it was heavy, sluggish movement. Matthew held his breath as he slowly lowered his leading foot to the earth in front of him, swallowing hard in his throat as it sunk into the mud.

“Hello?” The mouth called, more urgent now, more angry for having been ignored. 

His heart picked up, shaking away the sorrow for the primal instinct that he needed to get away. He wanted to run- to burst into movement, but that would only make his presence more known. It would have been better to move slowly, quietly, away. The rest of the android was buried, the earth would have been too heavy for it to move. 

It was fine.

Just move. Move. **MOVE.** His body screamed.

Slowly. Slowly. _Slowly_. His mind insisted. 

The engineer took a shaky breath in and took a second step, a third, a fourth.

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?”

A fifth,sixth,seventh-

“WHY WON’T YOU HELP ME!?”

Matthew ran. He ran and the muscles in his legs lit up, pushing the cold of the rain, of the fall out, out in bursts of strong contraction. He slid in the mud. He slammed into walls on his left. Walls on his right. His chest burned. Short reverent breaths. In. Out. In. Out. 

He pushed. And pushed. He pushed forward at full speed. Left. Right. LEFT. RIGHT. **LEFT. RIGHT.** LE-

Matthew’s left foot slid out beneath him, sending him crashing into the painful floor of the landfill- where androids had been compressed and crushed beneath the wheels of trucks enough that it was solid mass. He threw his hands down to catch his weight, but hissed in pain as his wrists collapsed. His hands slid forward. Jagged pieces of the lives long lost sliced through the tender meat of his palms. 

His lungs burned. His lungs _burned_.

Matthew rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky, blinking away rain and tears. He came into himself and found he’d been crying. Not quiet or reserved, but full chested sobs and cries that carried nonsensical words and pleads. His chest hadn’t burned from the running, but from the force behind the air leaving his lungs with each sob. 

“W-what the f-f-fuck…” he wailed, pressing bloody palms to his face, gritting his teeth to try and keep himself grounded, “nnn-aaagah!”

His chest jumped and he rolled onto his side, letting the sounds leave him, giving up on holding them back. 

The rain had long since soaked through his clothing. It hung on his form limp and heavy, sticking to curves and creases. His hair held patches of filth and mud in the long locks. The blood from his hands poured down his cheeks, streaking with tears, and rain into paler shades of pink. Matthew curled further in on himself and his shoulders shook from the cold and the sobs. 

Takashi must have called Lance while his bio components were shutting down.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHNNN! H _aaaaaa_!” The sound of his sobs lifted up into the night air, joined by a chorus of voices from androids still pleading for help.

It must have been Takashi’s last ditch effort for help. He was calling for help.

“ _nnnn_ nnngh!” Pitiful sounds trapped behind his lips.

Takashi called _them_ for help. He was suffering.

Alone.

In this place.

Just like the faceless fucking mouth screaming into the sky, not understanding why it was so forsaken. 

“Gnnnhhhh!” 

They failed him. He was never going to find Takashi. Not like this. 

“ **I’M SORRY!** ” Matthew screamed so loud he felt his lungs shake, “Mmmmnnnnggh!”

...All of this... 

“ _....Fuck_ , I’m so sorry….” 

Just because they were something other than human.

“M-t.”

The engineer jolted when he’d felt something on his shoulder, digging his heels into the dirt to push himself away from the touch in frantic kicks. His breath still hitched, the sobbing only marginally overcast by the fear that had struck through him. Another android, skinless feet stood in front of him, and as his eyes shifted upwards he could see their clothing had been torn ragged by the sharp edges where the skeleton of their thighs had been scraped and damaged. 

Amber lifted, meeting a face that had been molted in mud, with an unmistakable scar across their nose. The scar he’d left after…

“M’sry,” brown eyes looked down Matthew where he’d been piled on the wet earth. They looked apologetic, but behind that was the unmistakable spark of relief.

Matthew watched in a stunned silence as the android stepped closer to him, holding out a hand for him to take. He blinked the burn of his blood out of his eyes and moved to rub them with the back of his hand- only to find more dirt smeared across his face. 

“T-takashi?” He knew it was, but he couldn’t believe it. 

The android nodded.

“M-t. S’kay.”

The engineer had already started a mental checklist of what or could have been wrong as his eyes traveled over damaged. It wasn’t okay. He could see the deep spill of blue from the center of Takashi’s torso. His thirium pump had been damaged, but there was no way of knowing how low his levels were. The fact that Takashi’s eyes had a blue hue of light behind them meant something had been wrong with his optics. It didn’t look like his Mind Palace had been damaged in any severe way, but if he’d taken a hard enough knock, the cable ports could have been damaged, leaving the signal interrupted in some way. He couldn’t move his jaw which could have been anything from water damage to dirt being jammed where it didn’t belong. 9164x looked damaged as well, but it all fell silent as he took Takashi’s hand.

Matthew pushed up onto his feet and a new influx of tears had started push away the thicker streaks of blood. They _poured_ , clearing away dirt, burning his skin they’d been so hot in comparison to the fall chill. He stared at the face in front of him in awe, in shock…

“S’kay.” Takashi repeated.

“It’s okay,” Matthew echoed and immediately saw Takashi’s shoulders relax. He needed to hear it too, “we gotta hurry. Your thirium-“

“S’low.”

“Yeah, I bet it is...” Matthew felt himself switching into crisis mode. Takashi was alive. He needed to keep it that way, “My car’s outside. Can you see alright?”

“Liddl,” Takashi stepped forward, still holding fast to Matthew’s hand. His free hand had slid through the wet hair at the back of Matthew’s head and pulled him gently against the curve of his chest, “I hear’ you. I kneu.”

Matthew could feel the spill of Takashi’s thirium against his chest, a sharp cold puddle, reminding him they were embracing on borrowed time. He lifted the arm caught beneath Takashi’s and wrapped it around the small of the android’s back. The engineer squeezed, the muscles in his shoulders ached, but he needed to hold him tight enough. 

 

 

 

“Thangk you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop! Managed to get this out in time! 
> 
> Had to recalculate my chapters because I’m a long winded SOB. Lots of moving parts in this one. I’m kind of ready for the next chapter where everyone can get some love after they’ve gone through their own little battles the last chapter or two. 
> 
> Let me know what you think! (I wasn’t terribly confident with this chapter :/ ) Thank you so much for all of the support on here and on Tumblr you guys are so so amazing! <3


	7. Lonely Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew races against the clock to repair Takashi. Lance, Katie, and Hunk confront ED2939.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *ahem* About that last chapter- I promised Kunfetti the next chapter would be nicer...and “extra mushy”. I did my best to take a break from my natural instinct to stress everyone out....8I 
> 
> ....before I return to stressing these poor guys out next chapter.....

“Hold on Takashi…”

Matthew spoke quietly, as if the sound leaving his lips would have been enough to collapse the android slumped beneath the weight of his palm. He left his hand on Takashi’s shoulder and watched as the world slid by rain slick windows. Flashes of street lights casted heavy shadows across the interior of the car and the engineer held his breath.

 

“‘S’kay.” Takashi repeated. He’d been repeating it since they’d stumbled out of the landfill and fell into their seats.

 

His eyes were closed and Matthew could see non-essential functions slowly shutting themselves down to save enough Thirium to cool off Takashi’s core. It wasn’t a matter of energy, androids had a battery life longer than the lifespan of most humans, it was a matter of Takashi burning up in his own skin. It was a matter of bio components clogging on dirty Thirium. It was a matter of pumps sucking in air where it didn’t belong. And while Matthew had the ability to borrow a few pieces from Rebel Tech- he didn’t have the ability to rebuild an entire android.

The majority of the android beside him needed to remain functional and time was not on their side.

 

“One more block, one more block,” but it seemed like a lifetime.

 

They rounded the corner and Matthew pulled into the parking lot of Rebel Tech. The blue light of the storefront poured over Takashi through the speckled windscreen. The artificial skin had slowly drifted away leaving the white, alloy, skeleton bare and he looked fragile.

Matthew had never seen an android look that fragile.

The doors slid open and their seats swiveled to face the back of the car. He didn’t want to take his eyes off of Takashi and watched the smooth sliver of light over the crafted curves of a face that hadn’t left his thoughts since it first arrived in the repairs room, at the back of Rebel Tech.

He swallowed hard in his throat, forcing down the dread that rose in his chest, and shifted to crouch in the empty space between the passenger and driver side seats. Matthew took a hold of Takashi’s wrist, pulling the android’s arm across sodden shoulders, and held the weight of him as he helped him to stand. The rain outside had only pressed harder into the earth below, crashed unceremoniously against the bare head of an android, and the filthy human clinging to him.

They shuffled towards the front door and Matthew dug into his pants pocket for the key card to the front door. His palms burned as the open scrapes slid along the rough fabric of his dress slacks, but he bit his lip, and pushed through the pain. This was nothing. This was nothing compared to what he’d seen so many androids have to endure. He gripped the key card so tightly that it burst a fresh spill of blood down Matthews’s fingertips. He struggled to get the key into the dock and hold Takashi’s weight at the same time- the key scraped by once, twice, on the third try he’d managed to sink it in.

 

“Almost there.” He assured,watching the reader light flash; red, red, red, green.

 

“S’kay.” Takashi replied.

 

Matthew planted the toe of his shoe into the bottom corner of the door, the clack of powerful locks disengaging, and with one powerful push he’d sent glass door of Rebel Tech sliding open. He moved quickly, apologizing to Takashi for the clumsy movement as he rushed to keep the door open with his back, awkwardly maneuvering the android inside.

The engineer pushed them further into the store, around the front desk, and into the back of the store where the repair room sat- undisturbed since Matthew had left earlier that day. It was quiet without Lance and Matthew found himself missing the distraction. It felt empty without the sales associate draping himself over the computer screen and rambling on about whatever came to mind.

Now it was just him and the distinct possibility that he didn’t have enough time to fix what was wrong with the man wilting off his shoulder.

He shifted Takashi off of his shoulder, steadying the android with two hands on his hips, and slowly lowered him into a seated position on the side of the repair table. A bloody hand cupped the back of Takashi’s head as he guided him down, laying him flat on his back.

 

“I need to know how long,” Matthew explained, his hands reaching up to rest along the sides of Takashi’s face, his pointer finger resting against the slight raise of his LED.

 

“...ssssix minuts.”

 

“ _Fuck_ ” the engineer lifted his hands from Takashi’s face, turned away, and pressed his temples between his palms, growling in frustration.

 

He sprinted over to the filing system that comprised the far wall. Perfect, evenly space, equally sized, stainless steel bins sat stacked on metal tracks, dwarfing the man rummaging through them with a frantic speed.

 

“You’re going to be awake this time,” Matthew called over his shoulder, his hands navigating pieces and equipment out of the bins with practiced ease,”there isn’t enough time to get the box set up.”

 

“S’kay…” it traveled lightly through the empty air and Matthew felt his bottom lip shake.

 

He needed to keep his head straight. Breathe. Focus.

Torn fingers pulled two more pieces of equipment and dropped them on the rolling table that had been discarded in front of the floor to ceiling storage system. The engineer swung it around his side with practiced motion and pulled it to the repair table. His finger fumbled over the tray of instruments that sat on the shelf beneath the repair table until he found the wand he needed to cleanly slice through the tubing around the valve of the damaged Thirium pump.

That was the biggest problem- the pump had them on a short timer. If he fixed that in time the rest of the work was tedious, but not dependent on time.

Five minutes.

He’d glanced at his wrist watch. Thirium pumps were created to beat like a heart, but it wasn’t a necessity. The rhythm was programmed for the same reason androids had functioning “lungs”; to make humans feel more comfortable around them. In reality the Thirium pump could have slower intervals that pushed more Thirium through the androids system at a time. It could sit in the tubing as a lubricant for bio components for as long as three minutes before it went “stale” and needed to be disturbed.

 

“Takashi I need you to slow your Thirium pump down. Three minute intervals,” amber eyes lifted from the hole in the android’s chest, fixating on the warm brown of his eyes, and trying to convey some sort of assurance that he had this under control,”I can fix it. Drink this.”

 

The engineer leaned back to his rolling table and handed a clear, plastic, pouch to the man laid out on his table. Takashi took it in his hand, regarding the thick blue liquid as it sloshed against the walls of its container. A battered hand raised from his side, twisting the small rubber cap from the top spout of the pouch, and moved it to scratched lips.

Matthew’s eyes trained on the Thirium pump and he watched the creep of new Thirium as it grew close. The intake tube swelled, the pump’s compartment level jumped and-

 

“Now.”

 

Takashi set the Thirium pump in his chest to a greater volume over slower intervals and Matthew pressed his fingers into the gaps in the plating of the pump where the Thirium had been spilling. A sharp spurt of liquid had shot out of a corner that Matthew’s fingers couldn’t close off entirely- sending a deep blue streak shooting through the air and splattering against white tile. The pump emptied itself efficiently, leaving Takashi’s system with a fresh rush of Thirium.

Quick hands went to work.

Intake tubing clamped.  
Plating removed.  
Damaged valve removed.

Two minutes.

Replace valve.  
Re-apply seal for the valve.

Wait.  
Wait?

_shit_

Thirty seconds for the seal to set.

Matthew stared down at the seconds hand of his destroyed wristwatch. His knee shook- a bad habit from Lance. Amber burned into the scratched glass, tunnel vision setting in until he’d felt something heavy against the curve of his knee.

When he looked up he found Takashi’s hand holding the nerves at bay. A smooth, cold, thumb rubbed reassuring circled into the meat of Matthew’s leg. The engineer looked up and met Takashi’s eyes, feeling the grip on his chest lessen at the soft smile casted at him over a Thirium stained chest.

He felt the corner of his lips lift, returning the soft gesture, and looked back down to his watch.

3

 

2

 

1

Matthew tested the sealant on the value with a probing finger. It held.

He had thirty second for the plating.

Five. Tiny. Screws.

 

“We’ve got this,” he said out loud, the thin screwdriver in his hand frantically spinning the first minuscule screw into its seat.

 

The second screw.

He could hear the whir of the pump beneath his hands as it prepared for the next interval. If it went now the fresh Thirium would shoot through the unsealed edges of the plating. It’d blast out the value he’d just set and-

 

Hurry.

 

 

Third screw.

 

 

_HURRRY UP_

 

 

Fourth screw.

 

The Thirium pump squealed, fighting against the clamp on the intake tube and Matthew’s right hand flicked up to remove it, setting back to work on the last screw. HIs hand was shaking around the screwdriver. The Thirium squirmed through the tubing as it filled into the first compartment.

 

 

**FUCKING HURRY UP!**

 

 

The hiss of suction squealed through the last corner of plating.

 

 

ONE TURN.  
_LAST TURN._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Thirium pump jumped beneath his hand, squeezing the soft compartment just above the plating Matthew had been working on and the cold rush of Thirium slid through unimpeded…..and perfectly kept.

 

“WHOO!!! WHOOOOO-AHAHAHA! YES!” Matthew threw his hands up above his head, letting them fall to lay on top of his hair, “Ooooooh, _holycrap_! Oh, mygod. Oh my _GOD!_ ”

 

The engineer paced a circle, two circles, three circles with his hands still planted firmly atop his own head. His chest heaved deep breaths and he stared wide eyed at the ceiling, trying his best to come down from the cocktail of emotions he’d been drowning in since Takashi’s voicemail.

They did it.

 

“Thangk you.”

 

“Wha-?” Matthew laughed, turning to look at the android on his table with a disbelieving smile,”get out of here. Don’t…”

 

He stepped back over to the table running his hand over the curve of Takashi’s forehead, his fingertips lifting at the top curve of his skull, and starting the process over again.

 

“Don’t thank me just yet,” he paused, watching quietly as Takashi took a hold of the hand he’d left pressed against the android’s forehead, “we still got a lot of bio components to fix…and uh…...I think I’m gonna puke?”

Takashi raised an eyebrow, or would have had they been present, and let go of Matthew’s hand. A beat passed between them; Takashi trying to figure out if Matthew was being serious, but allowing the engineer to make a mad dash for the trash can beside his desk.

The engineer had spent a few minutes hunkered around his desk trash can, with his fingers gripping the lip, while he expelled what little amount of food he’d managed to eat throughout the day. It eventually petered out into uneasy dry heaves and, once his system seemed to have purged itself, Matthew slowly moved to stand upright- his hip leaning into the edge of his desk for support.

 

“....s-sorry,” he chuckled, embarrassed.

 

Takashi laughed from his place on the table, his jaw still frozen in place.

Matthew sighed, looking down at his hands absentmindedly, taking in the splotches of dried blood. The deep brown swirled through the paths of his fingerprints and caught in the creases of his fingers. Mud sat caked along the edges of open wounds, streaked down his wrists, and clung to the fabric of his dress shirt sleeves.

 

“ ‘m gonna wash my hands real quick and uh- brush my teeth. I don’t want to be all up in your face and...gross. We’ll get your jaw figured out and the rest is as easy as swapping out components. Sound good?”

 

Takashi raised a battered arm, holding up a thumbs up with an affirmative grunt, and Matthew set to cleaning himself up.

The soap and water stung, but the relief from the gritty texture of soil in the meat of his palms afterwards was reward enough. Matthew had unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled the filthy sleeves up to rest below his elbows. He brushed his teeth, thankful he’d been a late sleeper and kept a travel sized hygiene kit in his bathroom- often needing to finish his morning routine after clocking in.

When he stepped out of the small bathroom he’d caught sight of Takashi starring up at his own in hand in quiet contemplation. The artificial cover of skin had slid back into place, deep cuts correlating with the knicks that had been in the alloy beneath. Matthew stilled, giving the android time to think with some privacy.

 

Takashi turned his hand back over, palm towards the ceiling, and deep brown eyes followed over the curves and cuts there.

There were receptors for pain and temperature, among other things, that came as standards with androids. They were bells and whistle, made to make them seem more human. In most cases they were helpful. Pain was how danger was perceived. It let the body know that something was wrong and in need of fixing. The same logic applied to androids. Without the pain receptors or the temperature receptors it would have been easy for a majority of androids to damage themselves- which would mean more costly repairs for owners.

With Takashi’s Thirium levels as low as they were the non-essential components shut down. He wasn’t “breathing” when Matthew found him and with only about six minutes of basic function meant the pain receptors and temperature receptors would have shut down long ago. That had been why Matthew was so confident about working on Takashi without the aid of a Black Box.

Now, however, feeling would have been returning- which meant Takashi would have been able to perceive the pain of his injuries unless he chose to shut off his receptors. The androids eyes narrowed, the pain of his optics more than likely starting to make itself known, and Matthew watched as his LED rotated a deep red, a yellow, and then back to its usual pale blue.

He must have shut it off.

 

“You alright?” The engineer spoke up, making his way to Takashi’s side,”starting to feel it?”

 

“Yeh,” Takashi replied, letting his arm lay back onto the surface of the table.

 

“You want the box? Before I start swapping out components?”

 

“Nuh, s’kay. It’s off.”

 

Matthew chewed the inside of his cheek. The idea that Takashi would have been fully aware of him removing pieces of himself seemed uncomfortable.

 

“....alrighty….” came his quiet reply.

 

The engineer reached between his legs to pull the rolling stool beneath him and sat down, pumping the handle beneath the seat until it had raised up to comfortable height. He set to work instructing Takashi on what it was he’d been doing inside of his mouth. Skin fell away again, granting Matthew access the casing of Takashi’s cheeks. He’d removed it and set to cleaning out the debris that had leaked in through the crack in the external cover. It was tedious work and throughout the course Matthew had enlisted the help of a snake light, a few incredibly minuscule hand tools, and a pair of magnifying lenses.

 

“....wow….” Takashi spoke, running his fingers over the newly sealed alloy cover.

 

“I putty-d the crack there. It basically just takes some very fancy spackle and a heat gun to set it. There’s replacement covers, but we’d need to order it and-“

 

“It’s fine, Matthew. It’s great- you don’t have to explain yourself.”

 

Matthew blinked, caught off guard, but was quick to laugh it off.

 

“I just- I feel like a field surgeon or something. It’s...not what I’m used to. I don’t want to just make due with you, y’know what I mean?”

 

Takashi smiled and even without the nuance of human looking skin or facial features it felt so _warm_.

 

“This all seems pretty advanced to me. For- you know basic repair work…” the android pried, eyeing Matthew from his place on the table.

 

The engineer bristled, picking up on the deliberate line of questioning. He could see Matthew start to erect a wall, start to formulate some kind of calculated response. It stood on its own for a moment, but seemed to crumble when amber lifted from the table top and settled on Takashi’s face.

 

“Why do I get the feeling you did your homework while you were away…?”

 

Takashi shrugged, but the bashful smile on his lips betrayed any sort of feigned ignorance.

 

“What’d you get? Just public record type stuff?”

 

“You don’t...have to tell me anything. I just-“

 

“It’s fine. I mean, I get it. You’re trusting me an awful lot and I’m not exactly returning the sentiment by giving you more questions than answers. This...obviously….isn’t exactly the most fitting place for me to be, but it is the only place that would have me. Iverson is a good dude. Not going to lie- after this?” Matthew waved his arms, signaling to the unauthorized use of company material and the splatter of Thirium on his repair room floor, ”he’s probably going to have a strongly worded conversation with me, but...he gets it. At least a little…”

 

“...so...what happened? Why’d you stop working at Altea?”

 

The engineer sighed, leaning back in his seat to grab the replacement optic cable for Takashi’s Mind Palace. He busied himself with that work for a few quiet minutes, removing the plug for Takashi’s left eye. The android watched him with the grainy picture of his right.

 

“Well, as I’m sure you already know, Altea’s Android Production Company is a real stickler for protocol,” the engineer shrugged, lifting another hand tool from his tray beneath the table and leaned in close to Takashi’s face- lenses in place, “and I...stretched the rules a bit.”

 

The expression on Matthew’s face grew somber and Takashi felt himself frowning in response.

 

“I _was_ one of the lead engineers for the production of androids. (You probably knew that.) It was great work- not going to lie. It was just really exciting being on the forefront of something like that. We had a really good team and it was just this room full of _brilliant_ minds. I mean, some of these people were just not of this world intelligent. And the ideas? Oh man, the ideas were just so fucking wild,” there was a spark in his eyes, but it sat heavy there, weighed down by the bittersweet tone of his voice, “anyway...old stuff...not really relevant. There are these protocols we run in the production bays to make sure androids are safe and the programming is working correctly. It’s a series of questions- similar to when I woke you up here,“

Matthew paused in his work, casting a glance down to the eye still intact, Takashi could barely see it through the grain and interrupting signal.

 

“We all had access to these bays to make androids. It’s this really wild system of mechanical arms and...uh...we are not supposed to use them for personal stuff. We’re given set models and set programming for mass production. They give you set questions. They give you set Operating Systems like- Black. It’s just that sometimes OSs can...evolve in certain androids. The questions were supposed to catch that and then we deactivated and reprogrammed…”

 

The engineer swallowed hard, pointedly keeping his attention trained on his work and not the sinking expression on Takashi’s face,

 

“Would I...have to be deactivated?”

 

“....”

 

“Matthew,” the android pressed.

 

“Yes,” deft fingers slowed in their work and amber poured into the brown pools beneath him, “if you’d been brought to anyone else they’d have deactivated you. I’ve seen one other Operating System like yours before-”

 

“Who?”

 

“It doesn’t matter who,” the reply came faster and sharper than Matthew had intended. He softened up in apology,”but that’s how I got fired. I used the bay for my own personal use and when I was done- they failed the protocol. I went to deconstruct because it was...terrifying...at first...but they were _aware_. And they’d looked right at me…”

 

“They knew they were going to die…?”

 

“....yeah…they did...and I don’t care what some bullshit protocol says. That was life. You’re _alive._ ”

 

“...but they don’t think that…”

 

“Takashi…” Matthew felt his chest sink and he clenched his jaw to fight away the tremble in his voice, before he spoke again,”...very few people think that. That’s the shitty kind of world we live in.”

 

Silence fell between them and the tap of Matthew’s wristwatch proclaimed the passage of time.

“...what happened to them? The android you constructed?”

 

Matthew’s mouth pulled into a thin line. He continued working, moving onto the opposite eye, without a sound.

 

“...I don’t...really want to talk about it...if that’s alright,” he finally offered.

 

“Yeah, of course,” Takashi replied.

 

The two men sat in silence as Matthew soon found himself lost in his work. Takashi’s eyes had roamed over the expanse of the repair room, having the time to really take in his surroundings. The work space was surprisingly tidy aside from the scatter of personal effects on Matthew’s desk. The same tea mug sat perilously on the corner despite there being plenty of room for it.

Matthew’s watch rang out, announcing an incoming call; Katie.

The engineer paused, patting Takashi on the arm to let him know the last component had been pressed into its seat, and the android sat up- his skin sliding back into place.

 

“Hey, Katie.”

 

“Oh good, you’re alive- listen. We’ve kind of got a situation over here.”

 

“.....what did Lance do?”

 

“ _Oh._ We’ll have a conversation about Mr.Lance.”

 

“...uh oh…”

 

Katie’s breath huffed over the line before she continued, “Did you find Takashi?”

 

“Yeah, he’s doing alright,” Matthew held up a thumbs up and the android smiled, returning it,”...I was going to head back to my place and grab clothes and some sleep. We’re both pretty gross…”

 

“Tired?”

 

“...you have no idea…”

 

There was a pause on Katie’s side of the line.

 

“Get some sleep. Mom and Dad are still on that field trip. I’ll just make Lance sleep on the couch and you can head over here in the morning?”

 

“Sounds good, sis.”

 

“See ya tomorrow. Love you.”

 

“Love you too.”

 

“Tell Takashi I say “Hi” even though he doesn’t know me.”

 

“I will,” Matthew laughed, nodding his head even if she couldn’t see it.

 

“Bye loser,” and the screen of Matthew’s watch flashed the end of the call.

 

Takashi slung his legs over the side of Matthew’s table, letting his bare feet hit the white tile below with a soft thud. He sat that way, in silence, and Matthew watched him from where he stood with an easy smile on his face.

 

“Good to go?”

 

“Good to go,” Takashi planted his palms against the table top and pushed up, standing at his full height, “you need to get dry before you get sick.”

Matthew shrugged with a laugh, grabbing a handful of clear plastic bags from the top draw of his desk, and started to place Takashi’s damaged components in their own bag. He’d set to cleaning up the mess they’d left behind, wiping down the table, the Thirium on the floor, and tossing the bag of components in a hefty orange trash can.

 

“We were never here,” the engineer joked, presenting the cleaned repair room with a grand wave of his arms.

 

Takashi laughed, following Matthew out of the repair room door, and into the showroom of Rebel Tech.

 

—-

 

Matthew’s apartment sat peacefully sandwiched between a handful of others. He’d off handedly motioned to the door besides his and explained that the upstairs neighbors got up early and tended to sound like a herd of elephants. There was no reason to panic if he heard things thumping around.

The engineer had used an old fashioned key to open his door and Takashi found that interesting. He stepped inside, following behind Matthew, and smiled at the quaint living room he’d found himself in.

It was modest and surprisingly plain. On the left wall was a television screen and a gaming system. To the right was a small, beige colored couch that looked like it was rarely ever occupied by more than two people. The small glass coffee table had an empty glass and take out container at the center.

Brown eyes watched as Matthew hung his keys on a hook, just beneath a picture that hung on the wall beside the door, and Takashi’s eyes fell over the faces.

 

_Samuel Holt  
Enviro Science Labs: Geochemist_

_Colleen Holt  
Enviro Science Labs: Hydrogeologist_

_Matthew Holt  
Rebel Tech: Program Engineer_

_Katie Holt  
Olkarion Prospects Preparatory School (Senior): Student_

 

The boxing program only applied to humans in a physical form, which he was at peace with- considering it seemed rude to know the wingspan, physical shortcomings, and mindset of someone’s entire family.

 

“You have a family…” he said quietly, studying the similarities of their faces, as Matthew stepped into a room at the back of the apartment.

 

“Yep,” He called out, the jumps in his voice making it clear he was either getting undressed or fighting a very quiet intruder, “my mom, dad, sister, and me. I’m the devilishly handsome one and my sister is the one picking her nose.”

 

The android looked back at the picture.

 

“ _Your_ picking your nose.”

 

“I mean, I’m not _actually_ picking my nose. It was a joke. Given me some credit, man,” a light flicked on in the room he’d been rummaging through, and Takashi could see a beam of light casting over the shape of a bed on the far wall, “I got you some clothes. You can shower first- guest and everything.”

 

Takashi stood at the front door, unsure if that meant the light was a bathroom or if Matthew had just been stating an unrelated fact. The sound of Matthew’s foot falls grew closer to his bedroom door and a filthy face poke out of the room. The engineer pointed out of the door at its twin sitting a few feet to the left.

 

“That’s the bathroom door. Sorry, I’m not used to company outside of my sister.”

 

“Oh, no, that’s fine. I didn’t- I just wasn’t sure.”

 

“Yeah, no, I get it. That’s on me. There’s soap and stuff in there- you can use whatever you want,” he held out an arm, the filthy fabric of his work shirt now absent at his elbows,”here’s your pajamas. Sorry, I’m like- half dressed. So…”

 

Takashi paused, moving to take the clothes from Matthew, and awkwardly made his way to the bathroom door. He could hear Matthew moving around on the other side of the wall, more than likely fishing out his own clothes, followed by the sound of the television.

The android took in the small bathroom, wiggling his toes against the warm tile beneath his feet.

He caught himself in the mirror and braced- expecting a similar reaction to the one he’d had in the repair room all those months ago, but it never came. His eyes followed over the curve of the scar across his nose, the white in his hair, the difference in color between his left and right eye. The lense on his right eye had a hairline crack in it and Matthew had done his best to replace it with a color in his bin that had been close enough.

Takashi turned his attention away, pulling the shreds of his shirt off, over his head, and dropped it in the laundry bin beside the shower. The tattered pants followed and he sighed in relief as the heated air of Matthew’s apartment poured along the planes of his skin. He ran his fingertips along the deeper colored scars that streaked across his thighs, frowning, trying to recollect how he’d gotten them, and failing.

A laugh escaped his lips when he’d turned his attention to the shower curtain, finding a stylized R2-D2, in a soft blue tone, stenciled on white fabric.

 

“You alright?” He could hear Matthew call from his place in the living room.

 

“Yeah!” Takashi called back, reaching into the shower and turning the water on.

 

The android held his hand out, letting the stream from the shower head pour over his hand -glorious droplets of warm water. As an android he’d realized that showering was more than likely not a necessity, but something about it felt like home. It felt comfortable- like an old memory.

Takashi had too few of those and when he did- they came in odd patches. Always more vague feelings than actual images in his mind.

Androids didn’t have the luxury of getting lost in time. It was easy enough to not pay the internal clock any mind, but he was always aware of it on some level. Cupertino, Santa Clara, New York- any city he wished to know the time in it was provided in an instant. He’d been sitting under the warm pour of water for almost thirty minutes before he’d come into himself.

The rest of his shower was quick and efficient as he set to dispensing Juniper scented body wash and the matching shampoo and conditioner. Logically he didn’t need the latter, but it just...felt nice.

It felt like, for the first time, he got to take care of himself.

When he emerged, warm and satiated, Matthew had been curled into the arm of the couch snoring lightly. His mouth had been slack and his right arm hung heavy off of the couch cushions. The tv babbled on in the background- news being the only thing on that early in the morning worth paying any attention to.

_The athletic commissioner has stood by his decision to allow one android player player per team in the face of mounting scrutiny that it could affect the integrity of the game._

_Many fans protested this afternoon outside of Galra Industries Stadium against the use of android players, and there is word of mounting protest efforts in other cities across the US. Sayid Zarkon, the CEO of the energy company for which the stadium is named, has been very vocal about the potential of androids in the world of sports- and has been known to sponsor a number of up and coming android athletes._

_Galra Industries Stadium will continue to host the team despite protests._

_Less peaceful statements have been made in the past; there have been reports over the last few months of fans throwing trash at the android, as well as shouting obscenities down to the field..._

Takashi stepped towards the couch, brushing Matthew’s bangs back from his face, and frowned as the dried mud in the strands sent the locks standing on end.

_In politics the android known as Allura has been absent on Mayor Alfor’s campaign trail. The sudden disappearance of the city’s favorite android leaves many questioning if this is a political stunt- perhaps a statement on recognizing the impact androids have on our daily lives through absence. Many say, if it is a stunt, it is in bad taste and more than likely will affect Mayor Alfor’s compagne negatively. Political Analysts have discussed that Allura’s absence, combined with Alfor’s deteriorating health, point to what would be an absolute loss at the polls._

 

“Matthew…” the android ran his hand over the defiant hair a second time, trying his best to smooth it down enough that it would stay in place, “Matt.”

 

“Mmm, what’s up t’kashi…?” The engineer rolled further onto his side and tried to tuck the hand hanging off the side of the couch beneath his head- only to give up with a huff and let it fall back to the side.

 

“Did you want to shower?”

 

“Mm…”

 

The android smiled, watching Matthew try to fight against the heavy hand of sleep and losing the battle. He watched his eyelashes flutter, trying to open, but then everything went still. The engineer’s weight fully sunk into the plush cushioning of the couch and Takashi lowered himself to sit on the floor beside it.

Brown eyes watched the unfamiliar faces on the television talking over the situation in Antarctica, an android zoo, and a cat that had become famous for falling asleep in strange places. Matthew hadn’t made a sound outside of a small snore when his head fell too far forwards, fast asleep.

_A new apartment complex is being built downtown and homeowners have taken up quite the grievance over the noise pollution.…_

Takashi shifted, laying on his back on the floor beside the couch, and watched the shadows casted against Matthew’s palm from the light of the tv. It was much cleaner than the rest of him since the engineer had washed his hands back at Rebel Tech and the blood that had welled up in the wounds was dry. He watched the steady beat of a pulse in his wrist, feeling the beat of his repaired Thirium pump match up.

They thought of everything when they’d made androids...all the ways to make them human, but still separate.

_Red Ice...a dangerous drug on the rise with casualties reaching record breaking numbers. A surgeon in Detroit is facing a number of charges after practicing on a child while high and ultimately costing the boy his life..._

He watched the way the ridges of fingerprints casted shadows like great mountains, the abundant creases in hands that had lived through years of meticulous work, and found himself grateful. He felt it deep in his chest in a place that wasn’t labeled in his schematics and defied all logic of operating systems- defied android programming.

 _”Excuse me lieutenant , do you have anything you’d like to sa-“_  
“Get that fucking camera out of my face!”  
“Lieutenant! Excuse me, Sir!”

The android slowly lifted his hand from his side and watched as clean fingers slid through the spaces between filthy ones. He let his palm rest gently against Matthew’s, not wanting to disturb the cuts there, and smiled when he felt Matthew squeeze his hand in return- albeit gingerly.

 

“Night…” He mumble, more asleep than awake.

 

“Goodnight, Matt…”

 

——

 

 

“Well. Crap.” Katie sighed and dropped her hand from her watch.

She had needed time to herself to think and in the silent moments in the living she wondered how things were turning out on Matthew’s end. He’d been out searching for Takashi for a while and the last text she received was from him letting her know he’d made it and was going in. She called, hoping to calm the worry building in her chest, and felt the anxiety wash away at the sound of his voice on the end of the line.

They were okay.

The idea of dropping her current mess in her brother’s lap, at three in the morning, after he’d been digging through a landfill in the rain wasn’t an appealing option. He sounded exhausted and she could handle this. She had been handling this just fine.

In fact, with Lance’s help, they’d already found out enough about ED2939 that she could safely assume Galra Industries wasn’t sending assassins to a house in the middle of the suburbs. It sounded ridiculous now, sitting in the calm of her home, but when he’d first smashed through her window it was the only connection her mind seemed to make.

What was two twenty somethings with a hunch and a little sister in the face of something like a multimillion dollar energy company. They didn’t have much evidence to go off of outside of some weird flashback episode on a black box, which- good luck explaining that to the police. They didn’t even color code their data archive. Trying to find what she needed was like pulling teeth. Savages...

Maybe they were all being a bit paranoid.

Maybe they weren’t onto something big at all...just caught up in the idea of a mystery where one never existed.

Lance had managed to get a few things out of the window smashing asshole. Well, mostly it was just the two of them arguing, and every now and then ED2939 would let something slip in his furious retorts. Apparently while Lance had been talking to him over the last few months they’d built up some kind of repertoire. The sales associate apparently couldn’t stand the idea that ED2939 would have had the satisfaction of the last word and proceeded to find the forum through a cybernet search and just looked up the peculiar username once he'd gotten home.

 

“Easy, peasy,” he’d said and Katie had to physically grip the fabric of her pants to avoid beating him to death in a fit of frustration.

 

Eventually Lance had managed to work a name out of him; Keith

Which was all he’d offer despite Lance disclosing his full name in an attempt to earn trust. Katie was pretty sure Keith didn’t trust anybody. He was definitely the kind of person that still thought UFO sightings were real despite current deep space probing reaching as far as Kerberos with the new android crews and finding no evidence of anything like that close by.

He probably tracked Big Foot in his spare time...

Keith explained that he’d been looking for his android that had been stolen one night while he was out for a walk. That was a half truth, or at least _she_ didn’t completely believe it, because there was no reason for an android to just be out for a walk in the middle of the night.

That was over a year ago and he’d been looking ever since.

Despite the guy coming dressed in a simple hoody and black jeans she knew he’d been from a rich neighborhood. The brand on the tag inside his hood had been one of those obnoxiously priced clothing stores. His shoes, which were just plain, black, trainers, cost somewhere between 200-250 dollars if her cybernet search was correct. She didn’t even bother with his pants. It was an easy enough guess by that point.

That sort of lifestyle fit the bill for the other reported androids. It was easier for the androids of well off families to go missing because, more often than not, they were quickly replaced without much fuss. Middle class android owners were bound to raise a real stink about it and their economic status would have forced them to either wait for the old one to be found or spend the time they were saving up hoping to find it.

There was more looking- something the thieves obviously wanted to avoid.

When Lance asked if he’d gotten his android replaced the man just glared up at the sales associate, setting his mouth into an unmoving line.

Keith wasn’t very talkative after that- outside of demanding to be released.

The youngest Holt sighed, pushing herself off of the wall, and started to make her way towards her bedroom.

She could hear Hunk talking quietly about something- he was another mystery she was trying to get a hold on.

He didn’t seem to be in much danger. In fact he seemed the type to avoid danger at all costs. It didn’t seem right that he’d be seeking out Matthew and Lance with no real cause behind it- and who was he to Takashi? Lance explained the last time Hunk said he’d seen Takashi was back at Galra Industries- which meant he’d been a Galra android. So why wasn’t he as bad off as Takashi had been at Rebel Tech?

As Katie stepped into her bedroom she gave Hunk a suspicious glance and he’d frowned- apparently still upset he hadn’t completely won her over with their shared interest in robotics.

 _Good_ she thought _get used to it._

When she turned her attention to Lance the sales associate had been laid out flat on his back at Keith’s feet, balancing a pen on the curve of his top lip. Keith had been slumped in his chair, clearly exhausted, and sore from the inability to move thanks to Katie’s duct tape prison.

 _Good_ she thought, _you can get used to it too._

She had this under control. Matthew would get there in the morning and they’d settle this mess.

 

“You know he cried watching Brother Bear?” Lance spoke up, a wicked grin pulling across his lips.

 

“W-WHA-!? I thought we agreed that stayed between us! We were bonding!”

 

“I mean, Pike promised ED2939 that he wouldn’t tell anyone,” the sales associate cooed, “this is real life _Keith_ ”

 

Katie could see the man’s eye twitch at the use of his real name.

 

“Lance McClain and Keith...whatever your last name is...have only just met.”

 

“You can’t pretend that they’re two separate lives and then use forum stuff against me in real life you idiot. Besides- _you_ cried watching UP.”

 

“Dude, the whole world cried watching UP? And, unlike _somebody_ , I’m not drowning in my masculinity and am perfectly fine being vulnerable.”

 

“That’s not true…” Hunk sighed, quietly from his spot on Katie’s floor.

 

“WHAT!?” Lance jerked up into a sitting position, sending the pen on his lip flying, “Hey man! PICK A SIDE HERE!”

 

“I’m just saying. I’ve known you for like what? A couple hours? And I can already tell you deflect…..like….a lot.”

 

“Your face deflects!” Came the sales associate’s retort.

 

“You’re just proving his point you moron,” Keith grumbled, trying to shift beneath the duct tape, searching for a comfortable angle in his weight, “can somebody let me out of here?”

 

“No.” Came Katie and Lance’s tandem reply.

 

Three pairs of eyes turned to look at Katie, who took a deep breath, and moved to stand in front of Keith and Lance.

 

“Listen. I don’t trust you,” she looked over to Hunk,”or you, but I think you guys should hang around until my brother gets here. So, me and Lance will just take shifts and keep watch.”

 

“And how long is that going to be?” Keith sighed, squeezing his eyes shut.

 

“A couple hours. He needs to get some sleep and I’m going to hold down the fort here. With that being said; Lance is first shift,” Lance opened his mouth to argue, but she raised a finger to stop him, pinning him where he sat with her eyes,”this is _your_ mess. You’re dealing with it.”

 

“Well, that doesn’t seem fair…” Lance grumbled under his breath, watching Katie’s back as she padded out of her room, and into a room further down the hall.

 

“This is ridiculous. You guys clearly aren’t android thieves. If I knew you were all a disaster I wouldn’t have bothered…” Keith groaned, the chair creaking beneath another attempt to shift his weight.

 

“You broke through a window like a ninja, Mullet,” Lance sighed, rubbing his palms against his face.

 

“You did do that.” Hunk clarified.

 

“....I was just….I thought you had him…I didn’t want there to be any chance for you to cover your ass. Surprise seemed like the best course of action.”

 

It had been the first time Keith sounded anything other than angry since the four of them gathered in Katie’s room. He sounded tired and beneath that he sounded so defeated. Lance’s heart ached- he’d been too used to their fiery back and forth over the keyboard. It felt so familiar trading jabs with the man taped to the chair beside him, but this? This echoed tones of the few conversations they had when they’d grown familiar with each other. It felt like moments when they’d been more vulnerable than just sending pictures that reminded them of things they’d talked about and the usual fights.

Maybe Lance had been looking for a friend and maybe Keith had just been looking for more information about his android, but...sometimes it didn’t feel that way.

 

“...hey man, I’m sorry…” the sales associate frowned, resting the meat of his cheek against Keith’s knee, “we’ll just...get through this mess tonight and maybe we can all help you get your friend back. Katie thinks that all the stolen androids are connected to Galra Industries anyway…”

 

“...maybe…” came Keith’s quiet reply.

 

—

The three of them sat in silence for what felt like a lifetime, but upon closer inspection turned out to be about an hour or two. Lance had set to stacking up gears and assorted bits left on Katie’s floor into towers. Hunk had been tinkering away on one of the small bots that Katie had already assembled. Keith had been trying to find some way to sleep, but Rover’s constant circling kept him tortuously awake.

And then there was one, tiny, problem;

 

“...I have to pee...”


	8. Those to Come

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith will do anything to find his missing android. Katie makes a discovery about Galra Industries’ misdeeds. Matthew withholds information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m going to apologize for this chapter up front. I’m so sorry for the late post! I was fighting some really terrible writers block. I’m not sure if it will show in the quality, but I’m /praying/ it doesn’t lmao

Keith Kogane had a tentative relationship with luck. They were always locked in a give and take like spiteful lovers;

 

Lucky; He’d been born, naturally, into a well off family.

Unlucky; It was just him and his father from a young age.

Lucky; At least he had his father.

Unlucky; They’d been on the way home when a drunk driver slid into oncoming traffic.

Lucky; The driver didn’t hit them.

Unlucky; His father had to pry a child, from their car seat, out of the burning car that _had_ been hit. 

Lucky; Despite severe burns the child survived.

Unlucky; Keith’s father did not.

Lucky; His father’s will made sure Keith had an android to care for him until he was of age. He’d found the loophole to keep Keith out of the system

 

There were many times after that Keith could have kept score with luck, but he just...didn’t have the energy. School had become a prison. Home became a grave. The android that had watched over him was nothing more than a glorified cellphone pretending to love a human child. It needed a name, requested a name, but Keith had simply read a title off of the manual:

_Takashi Shirogane is the factory title...we’ll just call you Shiro. Happy now?_

Keith had been so spiteful. He’d been so terribly cruel at the beginning. He blamed Shiro in some way- angry that this machine was there instead of his father, instead of his mother, and it had the audacity to pretend like it cared. Shiro couldn’t care, not actually, he was just programmed to. It was downloaded in his system to give Keith a chance at some kind of closeness, a mockery of the true human feelings he could have had with anyone else, but…

...something changed…

It started with talking back to Keith’s teachers when Shiro had to be updated on progress at school in order to calculate the correct at home tutoring system. It was this android insisting that Keith wasn’t stupid- that he was alarmingly brilliant and full of potential. It was taking the information provided to him and deciding that the child Keith had punched was in the wrong just as much as Keith was all on his own. It was Shiro going against the clear cut text of “Keith was in the wrong and will be facing suspension.” It was Shiro, this stupid robot, telling off a principle that had it out for Keith from the start. It was Shiro telling Keith that he would never give up on him. It was Shiro saying that he understood- _What was there for an android to understand, but-_

He did...somehow...understand that Keith needed something to believe in- even if it was just some stupid robot. Even if it was just some stupid robot that believed in _him_ for a change. 

They would still fight- more so once Keith had reached eighteen and Shiro had no programmed obligation to stay around, but did anyway. 

They fought on the bad days when Keith wanted to be as alone as fate had dictated, but Shiro was there anyway. They’d fight when Shiro would call him on the anger, on his self sabotage, and Keith would snapback with boiling hate. They’d fight when Shiro laid a hand on his shoulder to keep him there on earth, present, to lend him the strength he needed in a moment, but was too stubborn to let the android be what he needed.

They would fight, but there was always more to it than that. 

There was always the times he let the hand stay, leaning into the heavy palm. There was always the times they’d laugh until Keith’s stomach hurt over lame jokes or tv shows. There was always the times they tried to bake; half with recipes Shiro pulled up and half with curious minds. There was always the nights spent in makeshift campsites in the living room, nodding off, with his cheek pressed against a chest that rose and fell just like his. There was always hours passed listening to a pump beating beneath his ear like it dared to be a heart.

There were those times when he’d felt something terrifying forming in his chest when he watched the android busy with whatever work he’d set himself to that day. There were always those times he thought he could have caught Shiro looking at him the same way. 

Those times were what he chose to focus on because it was far too easy to be swallowed up by the guilt of the times they’d argued- the things Keith had said. 

He chose not to pick apart their last argument.

He chose not to think that that night could have been the last time he’d ever see Shiro…

Keith would find him. He had to find him.

And if these strangers were a step closer to finding Shiro than Keith was more than willing to- 

 

“I’m just saying if you can’t pee without using your hands- what’s the point?” Pike, whose real name was apparently Lance McClain, mumbled from the bathroom door. 

 

He’d been half collapsed against the door frame with his arms crossed. The android that was with him, Hunk, just nervously puttered about in the hallway. 

 

“It’s just- how the hell am I supposed to aim? And you watching doesn’t help either!”

 

“First of all? Ew. I’m not watching you pee. I just have to keep tabs on you because Katie said so. And if there is anything I’ve learned- it's that you just do what Katie says,” he nodded solemnly, “And two? Just like...I dunno push your hips out?” 

 

“...push my- can you just untape my hands!?”

 

“Newp.”

 

“Then close the door.”

 

“No can do, bucka-roo,”

 

Keith growled deep in his throat and stared down at the blue toilet water mocking his need to relieve himself. He shifted, moving his duct tape mittens to the fly of his jeans and pinching the edge of the zipper just enough that he could move it- albeit very slowly. He’d lose traction every other tooth or so and would have to angle what little leverage the wrinkle in tape along his fingertips would allow. 

Lance hadn’t been paying him any mind, too busy watching Hunk, or the ceiling, or picking at his nails. 

He turned his eyes back to his pants and stuffed a mitten behind the button, hooked his hand through the open fly, and pulled up- unbuttoning his jeans. Nothing would have prepared him for this moment in life. As he shifted to try and push both his jeans, and his underwear, over the curve of his hips he came to the realization that he would actually do anything...and everything...it took to get Shiro back. 

Even if that meant he had to awkwardly straddle a toilet seat, with his clothing hooked around one ankle, trying to ignore the fact that another grown man was standing in the doorway arguing with an android about ice cream flavors. 

-

Keith wasn’t sure what had managed to pull him from his slumber, but by the time he’d opened his eyes the light of early morning had been pouring through the broken window. The few stones left on the windowsill he’d climbed through flung colored light against the walls of Katie’s bedroom. 

He shifted, finding Pike’s...Lance’s shoulder tucked into his side, just below his last rib, and a tan arm slung over his midsection. His body stilled, the position far too close for someone he’d been talking to over a forum messenger for a few months, but then he’d remembered. It was the fail safe that Lance had devised in order to avoid strapping Keith back into the office chair. He was allowed to sleep on the floor as long as Lance had a system to thwart any escape attempts. The best he’d come up with was to wrap Keith up into an awkward hug and duct tape his own wrists together. 

_”Good luck getting out this!”_ Lance had proclaimed, far too pleased with himself for such a half cooked plan. 

Keith had given up trying to get them to understand that he wasn’t looking to cause any trouble. It was obvious that they hadn’t taken Shiro and from the sound of it this group would more than likely help him find his stolen android. He was _voluntarily_ sticking around, until Katie’s brother made it over, so he could get more information- all he wanted was to at least be comfortable while he waited. 

Apparently that had been too much to ask. 

He had a crick in his neck from using Hunk’s thigh as a pillow and an ache in his spine from sleeping on one of Lance’s arms. His hands had been burning in the glue from the tape mittens. Comfort was a distant memory.

Dark eyes stared up at the rays of sunshine and the spider web that had manifested in the corner of the broken window. Tiny dew drops clung to delicate web and the spider slept soundly at a far corner. Keith was almost envious at how peaceful it looked with its legs curled close, until the sound of a car pulling into the driveway set his senses to attention. 

 

“What the fuck…? Why his my sister’s window smashed?” The unfamiliar voice sounded uneasy and Keith could hear frantic footfalls heading for the other side of the house. 

 

A second slam of a car door sounded and a second pair of feet followed after the panicking voice. It must have been Katie’s brother. 

Knuckles cracked against the face of the front door and Keith shifted in the arms taped around himself. Lance hadn’t stirred in the slightest from where he laid sprawled on the floor and Keith frowned, looking up to the android he’d been resting against. The LED on his temple breathed easily, but there was no indication he’d heard it either. 

 

“Android’s don’t even sleep,” he grumbled, slipping his hands into the space between Lance’s arms and his stomach, and pushing down until his forearms cleared him enough room to slide up. 

 

Keith angled himself backwards, over the curve of Hunk’s leg, and through the arms encircling him. The meat of Lance’s forearm clattered against Keith’s knee, then his shin as he managed to clumsily escape, and moved to stand. 

The two of them sat firmly unaware of the world around them and Keith couldn’t help, but feel insane for having pegged them as faceless android thieving masterminds. They were good people, he could tell that. He’d spent enough nights pouring his heart out to Pike over chat and vice versa. Meeting him in person hadn’t changed much other than the unyielding suspicion they held for Keith stung in an odd way. 

The night had been one of the strangest he’d ever had in his entire life, but it wasn’t all that bad. After being solitary for so long there was something...nice about the three of them sprawled out on the bedroom floor binge watching tv shows on Lance’s watch. 

The second round of frantic knocks drew his attention back to the task at hand. 

He shuffled down the hallway, passing the room Katie had been sleeping in with a wary glance, before cutting through the living room, and pulling open the front door. 

 

“....Uh…..” the man staring back at him had an uncanny resemblance to Katie. 

 

It had to be Matt.

 

“Who the hell are you?” Matt pressed, stepping into the house, and around Keith. 

 

His hair was wet and pulled back into a loose bun at the back of his head. Loose strands stuck to the back of his neck and the skin of his temples. The forest green of his sweater had been a shade darker at the back of the collar where the moisture from his hair soaked into the threads. 

 

“My names Keith. I-“

 

“KATIE!?” Matt paid him no mind, quickly setting on his path through the living room to the hallway that housed the bedrooms and bathroom. 

 

“She’s sleeping,” Keith tried to explain, unsure of how this worked. Maybe he should have just woken everyone up, “everyone’s still sleeping…”

 

“Everyone?” The freshly showered man looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

 

Keith nodded and started to count off on his tapped fingers.

 

“Katie, Hunk, and Lance.”

 

“..... _Hunk_ ….?” Matt stopped at the mouth of the hallway fully regarding Keith now,”Who the hell is _that?_ ”

 

“An android…” this definitely would have been easier if he’d woken everyone first,”he came with La-“

 

“What….happened to your hands?”

 

The two men stood in the hallway both looking equal parts confused and various levels of uncomfortable as they fell into silence. Keith awkwardly tested the range of his duct tape mittens, the quiet squeal of protesting glue the only sound passing between them.

 

“Uh….Katie…”

 

“Whoa. Let me stop you right there,” Matt held up a hand, shaking his head, and squeezing his eyes shut,”I don’t need to know what weird shit my sister is into.”

 

“Wha-!?” Keith’s face felt like he’d pressed it against the surface of the sun, the heat of it prickling into the tips of his ears,“NO! No, no, no it’s not anything like that. Listen. I can just wake everyone up and-“

 

“...Matt?” The door to Matt’s left swung open, revealing a sleep mussed Katie still trying to perch her glasses on her nose.

 

“Katie? Katie. Listen. I need explanations- like now. Your window is broken. This creep answered the door with duct taped hands and unbutton pants-“

 

“Unbuttoned pants?” Keith could see Katie’s lip curl in disgust despite the confused look in her eyes, “Um. _Why_ are your pants unbuttoned? Actually wait- why aren’t you in your chair?”

 

“...his…chair?” Matt asked, looking between Keith and Katie.

 

“Yeah, he smashed into my window. So, I tasered him and tapped him to my desk chair.”

 

“....what….the fuck happened here last night?” Her older brother sighed, burying his face into the palms of his hands, and willing away the inevitable headache. 

 

“Uh, Hunk!? Where is Keith!?” Lance’s voice carried down the hallway from the cracked bedroom door at the opposite end. 

 

There was a reply; Hunk’s voice mumbled away- too quiet for the rest of them to hear in the hallway. The bedroom door had flung wide open, the doorknob slamming into the Sheetrock, and a ruffled Lance stood in the frame.

His wrists had still been taped together and Keith could see Katie giving the man a lazy once over, before heaving an exhausted sigh. Despite just waking up the sight of her watch partner tied up in himself seemed to sap whatever energy she’d replenished over night.

 

“....Lance…what the hell?” Katie frowned.

 

“Wha?” Lance blinked following honey colored eyes to his taped wrist, before raising them up towards his chest,”this was my insurance! Everyone could get some sleep and Keith wouldn’t escape.”

 

“I already _told_ you guys I wasn’t going anywhere!” Keith ground out, dropping a hand to rest on the curve of his hip.

 

“Yeah, well, _obviously_ that was a lie or you wouldn’t be in the hallway!” The sales associate barked, pulling himself free from his self imposed tape prison. 

 

“I haven’t gone anywhere! And _he_ ” Keith shifted on his foot, pivoting enough to point a hand at Matthew, who only looked more confused by the mess unraveling before him,”was at the door and none of you were getting up!”

 

“Oh. And you expect us to believe you just happened to be awake?” Lance shot back.

 

“Yes!” Came Keith’s exasperated reply,”because that’s exactly what happened!”

 

“Hold on. What was Hunk doing? It’s not like he sleeps…” Katie chimed in, trying to get a visual on the android through her open door.

 

“Uh, just a little correction,” the wide frame of the android in question shifted in behind Lance,”androids sleep, we just don’t _need_ to sleep. It feels amazing though! I sleep all the time.” 

 

“...the rest of the house seems fine, Matt…Oh-”

 

It was a voice Keith had yet to pair up with a face. It must have been the second pair of footsteps he’d heard, but something about it pulled a thread in his memory. Dark eyes pulled away from the gaggle of limbs accumulating in the door frame at the end of the hall and he turned to look at the new arrival.

Keith felt his breath catch on the inhale and Matt raised an eyebrow. Katie’s eyes shifted, curiously borrowing into him.

Something boiling filled into Keith’s chest, lifted up on the pulley string that had simultaneously dropped a block of ice straight into the pit of his stomach. Burnt plum stared into slated brown that looked more familiar than he had dared to hope for in over a year. There was one side of Keith’s mind that served as a reminder that, while androids had variances, the majority of android models looked the same. The other side had lifted his arms from his side, if only an inch or so by the time he’d caught the motion, and forced them back down. 

He wanted to hold him, to apologize, to beg him for forgiveness he’d never found the strength to give himself. He wanted to cry- mourn the missed time and celebrate the fact that Shiro was standing right in front of him after a years time searching for answers.

He wanted to believe it was Shiro.

Keith wanted _so badly_ to believe it was Shiro standing there in front of him.

 

“Who’s this?” The android that followed after Matt had asked. It was a formality. As an android all of Keith’s publicly available information would have been pulled up the second the android got a clear view of his face.

 

He was asking because Keith must have been the only person in that hallway that the android hadn’t been acquainted with in some way.

Whatever had boiled up, warm and hopeful, in Keith’s chest shattered like brittle glass. 

It must have shown on his face because he’d picked up on the way that Katie’s face seemed to fall and the solemn line set on her lips. 

They didn’t know what Keith’s android had looked like or his name. He’d never shared that with anyone, not even Pike. He kept it squeezed in his fists where he could keep it safe long enough to reign down whatever sort of reckoning he saw fit when he found who’d taken Shiro. 

There was no way they could have known before, but now…

 

“TAKASHI!” Lance had nearly thrown himself down the length of the hallway. It was wild swings of long limbs and the frantic movement of lithe legs all coming to crash haphazardly against the solid shape of the android’s chest.

 

He threw his arms around the androids shoulders excitedly babbling on about whatever it was Lance had to say. Keith watched in silence as Lance’s fingers traveled over the curves of a cheekbone, the sharp edge of the android’s jawline making sure he was intact, all while chattering on.

 

“Hunk?! What are you doing here!?” He must have spotted the android meandering his way out of Katie’s bedroom, still rubbing his eyes. 

 

“Oh, man, you have no idea how glad I am to see you!” Hunk grinned and stepped forward. The late arrival reached forward to pull Hunk into the hug as well- leaving Lance sandwiched between.

 

“You must be Katie!” the android laughed, peering over the pair of heads latched onto the front of him.

 

Another formality, a way for a machine to seem more human. There was nothing more unnerving than someone knowing everything about you before you even shared your name. It was why Keith was so adamant about staying off the grid with his information.

 

“That’s me,” Katie spoke up, moving forward to place a small hand on the curve of Keith’s shoulder blade, “and this is Keith.”

 

The android smiled, and it was wide and brilliant despite the familiar, lopsided, dip on the right side of it. Keith couldn’t bring himself to move. He wanted to step away from Katie’s hand (it felt too much like pity), but he found himself pinned beneath that smile.

Did they all have those same mannerisms...had anything ever really been distinctly Shiro to begin with? 

His mind hadn’t stopped spinning, continually grasping for the reasons why this could have been Shiro. It could have been _his_ Shiro standing in front of him, but his mind quickly set to correcting that any android could have been Shiro with the right memories. Always quickly correcting itself to remind him that the idea that there ever was a singular version of Shiro was ludicrous. Quickly reminding him that androids were mass produced, the same way, and that he was nothing special...and that, by proxy, neither was Shiro.

Keith was stubborn and not once in his quest to look for Shiro had he ever doubted himself, had he ever despaired, but standing there in front of this android he felt himself being battered against the shoreline of hopelessness with every quirk of a crafted mouth- with every moment that felt familiar when it shouldn’t. 

 

“Nice to meet you, Keith,” the android smiled at him, holding out a hand as Hunk and Lance shifted back to give him some space after their hug, “I’m Takashi.”

 

Keith turned his attention to the extended hand, finding the strength to look away from the haunting memory of a face he knew for most of his life. He swallowed, pushing down the sad sound threatening to carry on his voice, before raising his own hand. It shook at first, tremors running to his fingertips, but they stilled as Takashi’s fingers slid into his hand for an easy shake. 

 

“Nice to meet you,” he’d managed, watching the way the android seemed to look over his face for a moment.

 

The LED at the side of Takashi’s temple whirled, slipping from the usual bright blue into a rotating yellow. He was thinking about something, but Keith couldn’t be sure what. He held his breath hoping against all odds that this was some sort of break away- that he’d remember. That somehow this was Shiro and all it took was that contact for him to just _remember_.

His hand slipped away.

The easy hue of blue returned. 

 

“Your hands are….duct taped….” Takashi spoke quietly, like he didn’t want to draw attention to Keith’s situation. 

 

……….that must have been what he was thinking about……..

 

“Uh, yeah,” Keith mumbled quietly, suddenly self conscious about the mittens Katie had so graciously bestowed upon him, “they are…”

 

Katie had stepped up as Keith slunk back towards the wall of the hallway and set to pulling the tape away from his hands. She whispered a quiet “sorry”, seeming to catch on to the fact that Keith wasn’t going to cause any trouble faster than Hunk and Lance had. 

 

“I...uh...didn’t realize there were so many people waiting for us…” Takashi frowned, his eyes shifting back to Hunk, “where’s Shay?”

 

Hunk frowned, wringing his fingers. 

 

“...that’s uh...kinda what I came looking for these guy for,” he explained, waggling his thumb between Lance and Matthew,”we need some help…”

 

Takashi frowned, seeming to understand something that the rest of the group didn’t. 

Keith grimaced against the pain in his fingers as Katie pulled the last strips of tape up, along with his top layer of skin. The tape left angry, red, streaks along his wrists and the back of his hands. He flexed his fingers trying his best to ignore the way the movement stung the abraded skin. Katie looked up at him, he could feel the weight of her stare, but couldn’t be sure what it was she wanted from him. 

 

“Hey,” she’d turned away from him, taking a hold of Matt’s wrist and the fabric of Lance’s shirt, “we need to talk.”

 

—-

 

“Okay, so what the hell is going in this house?” Matthew hissed out quietly, ducking his head as if that would somehow make it easier to thwart any eavesdropping from the group still stalled in the hallway why he, Lance, and Katie had a meeting in their father’s office. 

 

“Don’t use that voice at me,” Katie shot back, knowing full well that Matthew’s concerned older brother voice was in full swing, “and a lot. Seriously. Leave it to you to find friends that are a handful.”

 

“Hey!” Lance piped up from where he sat on the edge of Sam’s desk.

 

“Listen, you’re going to have to understand that I’m still a little on edge here. I pulled in to find your window smashed, some weird kid answering the door, and an android I’ve never seen in my life in your room.” Matt did his best to keep his voice as even as possible.

 

He and Katie didn’t fight all that often, but when they did it tended to escalate very quickly- especially if they were under stress. Finals week in their household typically inferred an all out sibling war. It took one shift in tone or one off handed comment before the pair of them were screaming obscenities from their bedroom doors and refusing to eat at the same table. Sam would always take up Matthew Duty and Colleen would tend to Pidge. 

Once the godforsaken week was over their family would slip back into their normal flow like nothing had ever happened. 

The only time that routine had changed was when Pidge broke Matthew’s nose. She’d been working overtime to make it up to him well into the summer. Mostly because he had two black eyes to serve as a reminder of their bi-annual testing war even after the stress wore off. 

 

“I get it, but don’t make it sound like I can’t be trusted to have this under control,” Katie kept her own voice level, practicing the art of peaceful communication,”it’s messy, but literally everything blew up over night. I handled it. Now, I need you guys to help me out because I’ve only got one third of this freaking disaster figured out, okay?”

 

“Okay.” Matt conceded.

 

“‘Kay.” Lance nodded, crossing his legs on top of the desk to get more comfortable.

 

“Okay,” Katie sighed, adjusting her glasses,”Keith was the one who broke through my window. He’s the guy we contacted on the forum forever ago. _Apparently_ your buddy here had decided he wasn’t done chatting. Keith pinged his watch since that’s what he’d been using to talk to him. When you brought Lance’s watch to me Keith must have remembered our C-IP from the first time I fought him off and...uh...well he smashed through my window thinking I was the one who stole his android. And he thought the reason I was tracking him was to keep tabs on his search.”

 

“....He’s kinda paranoid…” Lance offered with a shrug and Katie nodded in agreement. 

 

“Anyway, Rover tased him and I taped him to my desk chair. He had a knife on him somewhere,” Matthew’s eyes went wide as Katie mentioned a knife, but she held her hand up, continuing,”he cut his wrists free. I clocked him with a sample and took it off of him before I taped him again- that’s why his hands were...y’know...taped...so he couldn’t hold anything else.”

 

Matthew moved to sit down in the plush armchair in front of the sample drawers along the right side of the office. He nodded his head slowly as he processed the information along with what he’d been able to see since arriving. Keith didn’t seem all that irrational, but judging by how riled up he’d been by Lance it could make sense that he’d be impulsive enough to rush in like that if he honestly felt his android was inside. 

 

“Alright, so that’s Keith,” the oldest Holt sighed,”what about the android?”

 

“That’s Hunk,” Lance replied, thumbing a small sample of quartz around in his hand,”he kinda...assaulted my car on the way here from work. Was it terrifying? Yes. Did I remain brave in the face of certain parking lot death? Of course.”

 

Both Katie and Matthew exchanged a look- clearly not convinced.

 

“I did! Wha- are you guys serious with that face!? Anyway...he said that Takashi told some of the other androids over at Galra about us...and to like...find us? I guess- if they need help . I mean, we helped him and everything so maybe we can help some other androids get out of there?”

 

Katie chewed on her bottom lip, considering something.

 

“So, you guys are an android safe haven or something now?”

 

“Sur-!”

 

“No.” Matt’s voice had cut through the lighter tone of Lance’s and the latter turned to stare wide eyed at Matt.

 

“What?” Lance pushed himself up off the desk now, making his way over to where Matthew was sitting,”what the hell? why not!?”

 

“Lance, we’re a bunch of kids. We can’t just start harboring androids that we don’t know anything about. Katie’s already got a smashed window-“

 

“Yeah, because of Keith! And we cleared that up!”

 

“Lance! Would you think for a second about this? What the hell are we supposed to do? Do you really know anything about Hunk? Who the hell is Shay? And how are we supposed to go do battle with a multibillion dollar energy company? We need to talk to the police.”

 

“An android can’t incriminate their owner,” Katie chimed in, leveling her brother with a knowing stare.

 

“They don’t legally own, Takashi,” Matthew snapped back, trying his best to lead the two people in the room with him away from the solution they were seeking. 

 

“...which means if Takashi remembers anything then…” Lance looked from Katie to Matthew,”he could tell them everything!...I mean we could take the whole company down! Maybe we’d find Keith’s android too if they didn’t...you know...just...dump them…”

 

The three of them sat in silence for a moment. Matthew had crossed his arms, trying to keep the memory of the landfill at bay. Katie worried her lower lip, her eyes following over the jagged lines of samples left about the office. Lance shifted his weight from foot to foot, blue eyes following the decorative sweeps of the office’s area rug. 

 

“...about that…” Katie looked over to Matthew, who was still sunken down into his chair, “...I think Takashi might actually be Keith’s android…”

 

“What?” Amber lifted, fixing onto his sister’s gaze.

 

“I mean, it’s probable that he’s just the same model, but we’d already suspected that Takashi could have been his android when we first reached out to him. Keith recognized him...and when Takashi didn’t know who he was it was like someone ripped the guys heart out of his chest…”

 

“...shit…” Lance lowered himself down to sit on the arm of Matthew’s chair,”...well, then what…?”

 

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Matthew sighed, fidgeting with the fabric of his shirt, “his memory storage was completely blank the first day he showed up and they screwed with his AIN. There’s no way to even verify that unless Takashi can remember something and that’s...that’s pretty close to impossible.”

 

“Yeah, but so are android’s having flashbacks of erased data…” Katie offered, picking at the hem of her sleeve.

 

“...yeah….right…” he shifted in his seat, looking up at the curve of Lance’s back where he sat beside him, “let’s start small then. We need to talk to the police. At least get the ball rolling with that. They left Takashi in that landfill so it’s not like Galra Industries is looking to get him back. If Keith wants to help he can. We can try to suss out Hunk too. If Takashi remembers anything with Keith...we’ll figure it out from there .”

 

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Lance chirped,”and Hunk would help. He said there was a lot more shady business going on over there than just the android fights.”

 

“...hold up…” Matt reached a hand up to grab Lance’s shoulder, prompting the sales associate to shift on the arm of the chair enough to look down at him, “there’s more?”

 

Lance nodded, frowning.

 

“Yeah, he’s in charge of dealing with the catering when Galra Industries has big dinners, or whatever, for their partners- or important diplomats they’re trying to make deals with. He said that’s usually the worst time...they’re trying to sweeten up prospective deals so…”

 

“So, they probably go all out. The fights are probably just some kind of extravagant show of wealth...just...I dunno creepy entertainment,” Katie’s eyes went wide and she’d instantly set to pulling up the screen of her watch- digging for the information she needed, “I bet if we looked up the last time they were in discussion with a partner we could try to match up the dates for when Takashi came to Rebel Tech!”

—-

“So uh...how ‘bout this weather, huh?” Hunk laughed awkwardly.

 

The three of them hadn’t moved from their spots in the hallway, even after Lance, Matthew, and Katie shuffled into the office. Keith had spent the better half of the time picking at the strips of glue still running over the expanse of his hands. Takashi had watched in passive interest. He’d reached out to help, but it was met with a look he couldn’t quite understand, and Keith shifted his hands away. 

 

“Hey, Takashi,” Lance had leaned out of the office door, sparing the three men in the hallway the awkward silence they had been sitting in, “C’mere a sec, please?”

 

Takashi nodded, looking to Keith who hadn’t made eye contact with him since he’d pulled away, and then to Hunk, before following Lance into the room.

 

“What’s Hunk’s deal?” Katie abruptly jumped to the point, barely giving the android any time to take in the room around him. 

 

Lance had settled down on the arm of a plush chair that Matt had been sitting in and Katie stood at the front of the desk at the center of the back wall. The room itself looked like something out of a small museum. There were rows of wooden drawers set in a large dresser. He pulled up the words scribbled onto white tags;

_Dolomite_  
_Larvikite_

 

“Well,” Takashi turned away from the drawers behind Matthew and Lance, looking over at the younger Holt, “I met him during a party for Galra Industries. It was...some kind of...fundraiser or...something I don’t- it was never really explained…I was just there to be dragged around and shown off.”

 

Matthew shifted in his seat. He’d straightened up as if he’d just realized something, but had bitten his tongue, waiting for Takashi to finish. The android had looked to him, distracted for a moment, before he turned back to Katie.

 

“It was before one of the fights...they kept calling me “Champion”? I...I don’t remember patches-“

 

“They probably wiped the fights from your hard drive. Like how Tease will dump their androids memories every two hours. It’s smart,” Mathew bit out the last word, visibly frustrated as he rubbed his chin with his thumb, “...keeps from incriminating anyone’s face you might have picked up during fights…but you remember everything else this time around. That’s going to help a lot.”

 

Takashi frowned, disheartened by his ability to recollect soundly. 

 

“...I know I’m not the only android there for these sort of things. There was...another android with me...I just- I just can’t really pull him up...and there were girls-“

 

“Girls?” Katie pushed, choosing to ignore the pointed looks both Lance and Matthew had shot her way. They thought she was asking too much from Takashi, that she was going to stir up stress the android didn’t need after everything he’d already been through. She’d been watching the fervent yellow flicker of Takashi’s LED. He would be fine. Coddling him wasn’t going to help anybody.

 

“Yes, _girls_ ,” he continued, trying to ignore the way his thirium pump kicked into faster intervals,”they had female androids that they- they sort of loaned out to these people for the...for the party maybe?”

 

“Wha- like forced to be escorts!?” Lance had blurred out, horrified where he sat.

 

“Y-yeah, something like that,” Takashi confirmed with a frown,”one of them is Shay. Hunk has been trying to find some way to get her out. That could be why he came to you.”

 

“Well, what makes Shay special?” She asked from her place against the desk, eye trained on the flashing yellow LED on Takashi’s temple as he dug into his own hazy memory.

 

It shifted into a quiet blue. Whatever he’d been about to say there was nothing to think about. 

 

“He loves her.” The android replied, rising up to meet Katie’s line of questioning with a surety he hadn’t possessed before. 

 

The room fell silent. The three people in the room with him sat stunned. Their wide eyes all trained on Takashi.

 

“I-is that possible…?” Katie asked slowly, looking to her brother for an answer.

 

Matthew could feel Lance’s eyes posing the same question as pools of brilliant blue poured over him from above. He didn’t waver beneath it. The engineer rose up from his chair, fixing his sister with a level stare.

 

“Could you love someone?” He’d asked Katie, but it rocked through Lance as well. 

 

Takashi knew his answer, but it wasn’t a question for an android. It was a question for the humans occupying the room with him. With one question Matthew had solidified where he stood in the murky sea of understanding androids, of accepting them as equal, as the same. Matthew had been so sure of it; if he could love- then so could an android. 

Lance stilled, his eyes drifting away from Matthew and focusing on the floor at his feet in thought, but for some reason the engineer seemed particularly interested in Katie’s answer. Amber trained heavy on the woman defiantly staring back, her mouth set in a thin line.

It was the only answer Matthew was interested in. 

 

“I could.” Her voice had been sharp, level, and stern.

 

The siblings had a moment of silence. They watched each other, understanding something deeper that lurked beneath the surface of their spoken conversation, before Katie pushed her hips off of the lip of the desk with a sigh. 

 

“Alright, then. If we’re doing this,” the youngest Holt made her way past Takashi to the door of the office, “we’re giving Shay another place to go because she’s not staying here. I’m not having another Keith smash through my window.”

 

“I’ll fill Hunk and Keith in!” Lance stepped past Takashi, resting a hand on his bicep for a moment, and offering a reassuring smile, “Matt can fill you in on our plans for that shit hole that’s been doing you wrong.” 

 

Takashi laughed, patting the back of Lance’s hand, and turned to Matthew with a smile. The engineer had been looking past him to his sister and Lance pulled open the office door with a loud; “ALRIGHT MULLET! LISTEN UP!”

 

”Would you stop calling me that already!?”

——

The group had spent the majority of the morning pouring over their collective information, working tirelessly to decide what part each of them played in the steps moving forward. Lance had spent the majority of the conversation rubbing a cotton ball of isopropyl alcohol over the irritated skin of Keith’s hands in an attempt to thin the adhesive from the duct tape. Takashi watched in silence, grappling with a strange hurt that coiled in his chest at the idea that Keith would have pulled away from him, but leaned so easily towards Lance- in spite of his complaining. 

There was no understandable reason for that feeling. Takashi knew next to nothing about the man outside of what he could pull up on his identification system. There was no reason for him to feel like he should have been the one helping. There was no reason for him to want a stranger to look to him badly enough that it ached deep in his ribs. There were memories, or notions of memories, lingering on the outside of his mind. The same familiar itch that had manifested in the shower at Matt’s apartment- fleeting moments caught in the way Keith’s bangs drifted across his brow. 

 

“So, we’ll start meeting up at my place. This way your parents aren’t getting dragged into this,” Keith concluded, looking up to Matthew and then Katie, “Lance, Takashi, and Hunk are heading to the station…”

 

“And even though Hunk can’t incriminate them he can back up whatever information they take from Takashi,” Katie concluded, “ _we’re_ fixing my window...now...before my parents get back.”

 

“And then w- ah! Geez Lance...there’s only so much skin left without you rubbing it off…” Keith groaned, gritting his teeth against the burning on his hands. 

 

“...yeah...that tape did a real number…” Lance frowned, still cradling Keith’s right hand in his, and dabbed away at a particularly irritated line of adhesive that ran along the back of Keith’s hand. 

 

“...I can deal with it myself…” Keith muttered, but hadn’t moved to take his hand away.

 

He’d fallen silent, watching meticulous fingers pulling along the weakening glue. Blue eyes remained trained intently on the work at hand. Lance could feel the attention of the group shifting from Keith’s run down of the proposed plan and onto him, but did his best to ignore it- even if the dusting of pink along his cheeks betrayed him. 

 

“It’s almost done anyway…” Lance mumbled back, before lifting his head, “so, now we just sit and wait? After the whole window thing I mean.”

 

The sales associate had managed to bring the attention back to the plan and away from the heat spreading to the tops of his ears as he let Keith’s hand slip from his. The adhesive had been removed for the most part. Whatever had been left of it was easy enough to remove in the shower with hot water and soap. Keith stepped back, rubbing his hands together idly, and picked off the pilled glue that accumulated. 

 

“Yep,” Matthew spoke up, “there isn’t much good we can do really…”

 

“We could go and get them ourselves,” Keith offered, “Hunk could just figure out where they keep everyone when these ‘parties’ aren’t going on. He let’s us in and we let them out. He’s our guy on the inside.”

 

“Uhhh, not to be the Debbie Downer here? But “guy on the inside” sounds really...super-spy-esque and I am definitely _not_ a super spy?” Hunk shuffled over to the group, nervously rubbing his palms together, and hoped that sentiment would have run true with the rest of the group. 

 

“None of us are,” Matt agreed much to Hunk’s relief,”which is why the police are going to handle it. We’d have enough with Takashi’s memories before the last fight to get that entire company raised.”

 

“Assuming they’re not paying off cops,” the dark haired man shot back, “assuming they don’t tip off Galra that we’re looking into them and they start covering their tracks-“

 

“Did you watch too many action flicks as a kid or something? _Jesus_ , Keith.” Lance sighed, the look on his face caught between disbelieving awe and exasperation. 

 

“Is it really that unbelievable that a multibillion dollar company would do anything to make more money or have more power?” Keith huffed and turned his attention to his feet.

 

Without any thought to the motion Takashi reached out and laid his hand on the curve of Keith’s shoulder with a frown.

It wasn’t that unbelievable and with what Takashi had seen first hand it was easy to see the energy company as some sort of untouchable evil, but sending a group of twenty somethings and a little sister to the front gates wasn’t the most logical of solutions. It was appealing, sure, but the odds were that security would have caught them and sent them all home- or charged them with trespassing if they were in a particularly bad mood. With all of the security cameras or foot traffic they were bound to have posted it was highly unlikely that Galra Industries would miss a mob of escaping androids making their way across the grounds. 

There were a thousand reasons why Keith’s well meaning (but impulsive) solution to their current problem was dangerous, but there was something about the way his shoulders had slumped forward that stirred Takashi into action. 

It had been the first time that Keith hadn’t immediately pulled away from him. Takashi watched him standing beneath the weight of his hand with soft eyes. Matthew watched them, holding his breath until Keith reached his own hand up-

And peeled Takashi’s hand away.

 

“Please, don’t,” Keith spoke quietly, the heavy weight of something Takashi couldn’t put his finger on settled. 

 

“...are you going to say something?” Katie prompted quietly, pressing her shoulder to Matthew’s, and effectively pulled him from his thoughts. 

 

“...what am I supposed to say, Katie?” Matt kept his voice low, his eyes traveling to make sure both Lance and Hunk had their attention elsewhere. 

 

The computer whiz kept her gaze trained on Matthew for a moment longer, but when it became clear that he wasn’t going to speak, she stepped back with a disappointed sound on her lips.

 

“Let’s get a move on,” Katie announced, watching how Keith seemed to step back and Takashi fell in beside Matt,”I really don’t want wildlife moving into my room before we get that window fixed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! I’m glad I got this laid out. I’ve been chomping at the bit for this next chapter. >:} (Even if some of you might hate me for what I’m about to do...)


	9. Heart It Races

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew goes to the police. Katie grapples with a family secret. Lance learns about Keith’s missing android.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y’all I am so sorry this took forever. I was hoping to just knock out the last long chapters at once, but life keeps kicking my ass royally. I figured smaller chapters more frequently would be better for at least /some/ progress on my part 8I I have to pick through this and recode and spellcheck....it’s bad guys....please forgive me

Matthew had been silent since they’d left the police station.

Amber eyes stayed trained on the road unfurling before them as the car followed its path to the address that Keith had provided them. Takashi sat in silence beside him, watching the afternoon sun bleach away the color of the world around them. 

The layover on his visuals blipped up in its designated box;

 

_Matthew Holt.  
Rebel Tech: Program Engineer  
Weakness: Injured Knee  
Wingspan:183cm  
Mentality: Agitated_

 

They’d tried their best to get some sort of aid from the police station, but at every turn they’d been met with a lackadaisical gesture towards another set of paperwork. At first Matthew had stuck to it. He’d filled out each form with determination. He’d filled up line after empty line, with everything that they’d learned as a group. He’d kept his hopes high and Takashi kept the information that the majority of people they’d talked to were either bored (or irritated) to himself. 

_”Listen, Kid. There’s enough complaints filed against Galra Industries with all these protest events at this point that we couldn’t comb through ‘em without a small army. You can put in a statement, but I can’t promise ya much.”_

_”Evidence...on an android... Well, that’s not even relevant at this point in the reporting process. Take these forms. You can hand them back to me when you’re done.”_

It was only when they were finally placed at a desk that Matthew seemed to spiral.

_”Che, so you’ve got your panties in a bunch because you’re buddy here got a raw deal? Here’s the thing- you’re wasting my time...which I don’t appreciate. So, let me break this down for you. The likelihood that a billion dollar company would need to steal androids is unlikely. For all we know you’re just another lunatic that thinks fabricating some conspiracy against Galra is gonna further your ridiculous agendas. So...when we tell you there’s nothing we can do? There’s nothing we can d- whoa wait, wait, wait! Don’t walk away- I still need to explain to you why that is!”_

_Matthew had slowed to a stop just before the turnstiles that lead out to the waiting area. The television that hung on the wall a few feet ahead flashed images of the latest protest against Galra Industries and the voices of newscasters bubbled through sleek speakers._

_Takashi hadn’t stormed off with him and found himself caught in the space between Matthew and the officer that had slowly walked up behind him, and placed a hand on the android’s shoulder._

_“You see; android fights aren’t illegal- I mean, they are? But only when it’s commercialized and there needs to be gambling. So, if some rich pricks want to watch a couple of plastics pricks beat the shit out of each other? Yeah, they can do that. And I don’t give a fuck? And theeeey” The Officer held his syllable as his finger pointed circles around the crowd of desks assigned to individual officers and their partners,” don’t give a fuck.”_

_Takashi could see Matthew’s fist clench at his sides, the tension rose in his shoulders, and it all crescendoed into one tight ball of muscle and sinewed tension until…_

_“You’re disgusting.” The engineer hissed, but the officer just barked out a laugh and ushered Takashi forward, closer to Matthew, with an easy push._

_“Been called worse. Have a nice day. kid.”_

 

Matthew must have felt Takashi’s eyes on him considering he seemed to shift uncomfortably under the attention when he’d look to his right and found that the android was still tentatively watching his face. 

“I just-!” He started, lightly dropping his palms onto the dashboard, releasing some of the pent up aggression still wound in his shoulders,”I just don’t understand how even the fucking police don’t have a shred of empathy! Aren’t they supposed to keep people safe!? Like isn’t that the whole fucking _point_ of law enforcement?! To help people!?”

 

“To help _people_ , Matt…” Takashi frowned and reached across the center console to rub soft circled into the meat of Matthew’s shoulder. 

 

“Why do you just not count because you’re an android!? It’s fucking ridiculous!” The engineer shrugged Takashi’s hand off with a frustrated groan, apparently not wanting the comfort, or rather, too caught up in his own anger to sit still for it. 

 

The android dropped his hands back into his own lap, his palms pressed flat to one another, and his fingers pressed together between his knees, unable to provide much of answer. He watched the homes that were much larger than the Holt’s roll past the windscreen in silence. 

 

“Actually….can you do that again….?”

 

Takashi blinked, turning back from the window to find Matthew looking at him with a bashful dust of rose across freckled cheeks.

 

“...uh...do what?” His voice felt like it had been caught somewhere deep in his chest, or his throat had been too tight to allow it passage.

 

“...the shoulder rubbing thing…” Matthew’s gaze slid forward, drilling precision holes into the dashboard display that had been rolling the same string of news that had been in the police station, too embarrassed to hold eye contact. The engineer scowled at the footage of stadium protests, before jamming his thumb against the touch screen, and turning it to a Sci-Fi channel, “...it uh...it helped…”

 

“...sure,” he replied with a soft smile, that only seemed to inch closer to his ears when he felt Matthew’s weight lean into the bowl of his palm, and thumbed careful circles into the skin beneath soft sweater. 

 

“...Sorry…”

 

“No need to be…”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

“...what the fuck…?” Lance whispered to himself (for the second time since pulling in the driveway), removing his shoes, and shifted to run tanned fingers along the ornate table that sat at the center of the room. And by “room” he meant _foyer_.

 

Who even had an actual room dedicated to entering a house?! And by house? He meant manor, estate, haunted mansion- you name it. Keith’s place had been a bizarre mix of horror movie eerie and grandiose. From the outside it had looked like some possessed house from an old Stephen King movie. He was forgetting the name of the particular one he had on the tip of his tongue, but it would more than likely surface to the forefront of his mind at the worst possible time. Once they’d entered it turned out to be very modern on the inside. The walls weren’t of the same cold, gray, stone as outside, but smooth, clean sheetrock painted a curious southwestern terracotta, with natural wood trim. Or it would have been a wood color if it hadn’t been coated in a thick layer of dust. 

Almost everything was. 

Blue eyes scanned over the flat, sparkling, white tile that looked like it ran throughout the entire first floor, before shifting to watch Keith as he shuffled uncomfortably towards the living room on their right. He could see where the gremlin usually lived in the space and the living room certainly wasn’t a typical location. Finger prints and disturbed dust sat along the foyer table where Keith dropped his keys and wallet. Outside of that the film remain undisturbed through the rest of the area minus the handrail that led upstairs. That must have been where his bedroom was.

Lance followed after him in silence, taking note that he’d been right about the living room consider the cushions on the back of the couch had sported the same coating of dust as every other surface in the living room. Even the remote control that sat on the corner of the coffee table looked like it hadn’t been touched in ages. 

Keith dropped down into the plush cushions of the couch and awkwardly stared forward at the tall windows that sat on either side of the entertainment center on the opposite wall. He could see his pale fingers rolling the fabric of his hood strings nervously, but chose to use the awkward silence to prod around the living room. 

The couch was a long, sweeping, brown leather sectional that had split the room in half, leaving a few feet out of hundreds between it and the television. To the right of the entertainment center sat pristine, French doors that led out onto what looked like some sort of stone patio, but it had been to dark to see much more than the landscaping that sat immediately beyond the glass of the doors. 

The sales associate stepped further into the living room, running his left hand along the back of the couch as he walked, disturbing the dust as he went and finding some giddy interest in the way it swirled behind him in the beams of the recessed lighting like he was some sort of fairytale creature. On the back wall, to Lance’s right, was built in line of shelving that housed more books than one person could possibly read and some obnoxiously neutral, hotel lobby type, art. 

The pops of turquoise triangles just barely saved saved it.

Barley.

 

“You don’t have people over much do ya, mullet?” He laughed quietly, pausing at the narrow display table that stood a few feet past the one end of the couch, against a wall sandwiched between the miniature library wall, and the wall that house the backdoors. 

 

“...not really…” came Keith’s quiet reply.

 

On the table sat more undisturbed dust and picture frames that had been turned down to keep their contents hidden. There was a handful left standing- mostly landscapes and architecture from places Lance didn’t recognize, but one stood out. It wasn’t that he’d recognized the location, but he would have known that face anywhere.

...Takashi...or at the very least the same android model, but regardless that had to be hard on man currently trying to scrub the dust off of the remote’s buttons with the hem of his hoodie. It was just too much of a coincidence. What were the odds that Keith had lost an android that looked exactly like Takashi? Dutiful fingers curled their way around the frame and Lance lifted it closer to his chest, as if getting a better look would have gifted him some kind of hidden secret. 

The android stood tall with a full head of dark hair, bundled up in a black, double breasted, coat. A thick knitted scarf turfed beneath a sharp jawline and a gloved hand rested easily on Keith’s shoulder- or who Lance assumed was Keith.

The person that smiled back at him, half turned away in order to keep his hands against the android’s chest and opposite shoulder in a half embrace, looked nothing like Keith had sounded over months of chatting online. They looked nothing like Keith looked- as least not the version of Keith _he’d_ met.

The stormy maroon color of his eyes was bookended by pinpricks of tears- from laughing. The camera had taken the snapshot mid laugh. There was streak of slush and still clean snow down the arm closest to the camera. He must have fallen trying to scramble back towards the android after hitting the timer button. The android had his eyes set firmly on Keith’s bright face. His own laughter bubbled to the surface, past his look of bewilderment, just before it was made immortal by the snap of a lease. 

 

“...Hey…” Lance set the picture down, turning to face Keith without really knowing what it was he planned to say next.

 

“Hm?” Came a noncommittal noise from the tired man on the couch, flicking through channels like he hadn’t watched live stream television in ages, and wasn’t sure what to do with himself. 

 

“Do yo-“

 

_vvvvrrrrrrrr vrrrrrrrrr vrrrrrrr_

 

Lance’s watch vibrated, demanding his attention. Keith looked his way, raising his eyebrows with a quizzical look on his face. _What’s up?_ The sales associate blinked, looking down to the screen on his wrist to find a name;

 

_Boss Man_

 

“Oooooh, fuuuuck,” he groaned.

Keith’s expression shifted quietly, his eyebrows dropping low in annoyance, requesting an answer for a second time.

 

“N-never mind, man. I- uh. I gotta take this it’s my boss,” he explained, really, _really_ dreading how much Iverson was about to chew him out, and walked back into the foyer- hitting the answer call button.

 

“McCLAIN!? DO YOU MIND EXPLAINING TO ME WHY YOU’RE NOT A WORK!? WITH NO PHONE CALL OR EXPLANATION!?”

 

“OH! Iiiiverson, haha! Hey! Hi! Um...well...you see-“

 

“AND WHERE THE HELL IS HOLT?!”

 

“...m-Matt? Uh….I….I dunno,” he lied weakly, pushing Keith’s keys around with his free hand, “I’ve been at home….too sick….”

That sounded reasonable enough.

 

“Sick?”

 

“Sorry, I meant to call, but I must have fallen asleep. I was up all night…”

 

“Well, we’re sw-“

Lance could feel the deep rumble of a classic session of getting chewed out by his boss festering in Iverson’s tone. He’d faked being sick once before for a concert on his birthday and Lance knew his resolve for lying to the the man wasn’t as strong as it could have been...mostly because he broke down and ended up going to work that day anyway.

He could do it this time. He could make it out of there as long as the conversation was short and Iverson didn’t push him for too many details.

 

“No sleep at all because, I mean, just shitting...CONSTANTLY. Just everywhere. I mean not literally everywhere, but you know like...when you sneeze and you need to take a second to be like; did I just shit myself?” 

 

He was panicking.

 

It was the best thing he could come up with. The best way to get Iverson to stop questioning and avoid him slipping up that he had just played hooky from his job (THE JOB THAT PAYS HIS BILLS!) and totally forgot to phone in.

 

“I don’t want to kn-“

 

SHUT IT DOWN!

 

“And I _may_ have shit myself? But it was really hard to tell because I was sweating so much and it was so wa-“

 

“STOP. McCLAIN. STOP. I don’t need details! _Jesus Christ_ what is wrong with you!?”

 

“I already told you. I’ve been sh-“

 

“For fucks sake! That’s not what I meant. Just. Take it easy…”

Success. 

Lance could hear a grumble of _disgusting_ before the call went dead. He quickly set to typing up a quick message to Katie and Matt; _I’m pretty sure Takashi is definitely Keith’s android guys_. He grinned victoriously to himself, replaying his clever lie for Iverson in his mind, and when he looked up from his watch Keith had been peering over the back of the couch with an amused grin on his face. 

 

“You’re disgusting,” he laughed, smokey eyes following Lance as the sales associate shuffled towards the couch.

 

“Yeah, well,” Lance planted his hands against the back of the couch and hurdled over it, sliding down into the seat next to Keith on the other side,” you know me!”

 

The dust from the couch rocketed into the air like a spore had burst. Bits of undisturbed life weaved their way through the air, sparkling in the dimmed LED lighting above them, and when the breeze from the ceiling fan hit just right they scattered. Keith shook his head in disbelief, the huff of breath that pushed past his lips sent a few specks of dust skittering towards Lance. 

He could see the picture version of Keith lingering somewhere in there. His face was just as soft even when his cheeks weren’t pinched by a wide smile. There was still something lingering deep in the curious color of his eyes, and maybe it was the dust, but something sparked there. Wispy locks of the black hair still curled and flicked about the narrow shape of his face but it was missing...something…

 

“What?” Keith’s voice lifted him from the quiet observation.

 

“...uh...nothing…I was just thinking.”

 

“...are you...are you capable of that?” The _stupid_ , internet troll teased. Rightfully pleased with himself if the smirk was anything to go by.

 

“Oh, HAHA! HI-AH-larious! How does one get SO funny?” Lance rolled his eyes, tossing a throw pillow that had been tucked into the arm of the couch at the man, sending another cloud of dust airborne. 

 

“Years of practice,” he grinned, deflecting the pillow easily. 

 

“If you have to practice having a sense of humor; you’re doing it wrong, Mullet,” the sales associate leaned forward with a lazy smirk and hooded eyes-

 

Until a throw pillow slammed clean into the side of his head.

 

“Wha- what the hell!?” Lance growled, wringing the pillow between his hands.

Keith’s laugh came as a sharp bark of amusement and he planted his palm on the back of the couch, threw his legs over, and took off into the foyer- down the hall that ran beside the stairs. Lance watched as Keith’s lithe form artfully twisted to correct his center of balance before rounding an unseen corner at the end of the hall. 

“OH, YOU’RE IN FOR IT NOW, ASSHOLE!” He laughed, pushing himself off of the couch, and took the pillow with him. 

 

“This is my house. I have the advantage!” Keith’s voice traveled from the left side of the hall.

 

Lance scoffed, stalking through the foyer and into the mouth of the hallway Keith had disappeared down. 

 

“Not if you keep screaming and giving away your position!” 

 

“Oh, right. I forgot you were a trained ninja assassin that knew something about strategy,” came Keith’s scoff, “please forgive me!”

 

“Not a chance,” the sales associate cooed, stepping towards the open door just off of the kitchen where he’d could hear Keith’s voice.

 

From what he could see inside the room it looked like a messy office. There was cork board hanging above the desk on the wall with red push pins keeping snippets of newspaper articles and polaroid pictures. Those pictures spoke more about how loaded the guy was than the house they were currently scurrying through. If he had one of those camera just sitting around to use for his bigfoot theories then the rest of the bells and whistles in this place would forever pale in comparison. 

 

“So, what do you ninja senses tell you?” A snicker carried out from the office.

 

He must have been hiding right beside the door, probably pressed up against the door where Lance couldn’t see him until he stepped through. That was fine because he’d be ready.

 

“That I’m closing in. You cocky son of b-“ when Lance jumped through the door frame, only to be met with an empty room his mind reeled, “what the…”

 

Beside the office door sat a small panel with a sleek speaker and a blinking green light beside the visual box. 

...He had intercoms…

The realization had only just managed to fully seat itself in his mind before something collided with his side, sending him crumbling to the floor. 

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

“Oooh, Iverson! Y-yeah, I’m alright. I uh-“ Matthew’s watch had gone off as they pulled into the driveway and he excused himself from the car, “just a crazy night. The uh...the family stuff I left early for is just starting to blow over.”

He could see Takashi sitting quietly in the passenger seat. The android had been touching something on the screen in the car and judging by the intermittent changes in his expression he must have been skipping through channels on the television setting. 

 

“Oh, uh...what was the issue? My...parents? Are out of town for a work field trip. So, it’s just my sister at home and…” he needed to think of something, something that wouldn’t bring up more questions, “...shegotherperiod!”

 

Katie told him numerous times the best way to shut anyone down when she wanted to skip class was to bring up a period around a guy. And she was right. He’d watched teachers back pedal at the mere notion of it. Which seemed silly because almost every female did it, but if it worked he wasn’t going to question it.

Also.

Good on his genius little sister for playing the system constructed to keep her down.

 

“...she…”

 

What was this!? Why wasn’t he just backing down!? 

Panic set it. Iverson has already damned the flawless plan His younger sister laid the blueprint for before him and-

 

“Oh, yeah man. Just it was _everywhere_! You know- as is normal for when that thing happens,” he thought, to be honest he’d never paid any real attention to what females did with their nether regions, but judging by the pads his mother had under his parents bathroom sink it had to be something, “I mean she was just fl-“

 

“NO. NO. NOnono. I’m not having another one of these phone calls. Listen you better be back at work tomorrow or you’re not going to have a job to come back to, alright? I’ve got two daughters. Sh-she’ll be...fine...by then.” 

 

“....whew, yeah I certainly hope so…” Matt trailed off watching Takashi, who seemed fixated on whatever had been playing on the screen, with a soft smile on his lips. 

 

An awkward cough traveled over the line, followed by _See you tomorrow._

The line disconnected. Matthew shuffled his feet, heaving s heavy sigh a he stared down at the cobblestone driveway beneath his feet. He hated lying to Iverson. The man had been more than gracious with him since he’d dragged himself into Rebel Tech with broken pride and an application form. He came across as a bit of brute, but underneath it all you could tell Iverson had a soft center. 

When he looked back up it was just in time to catch Takashi laughing so hard in the car by himself that the android was clutching his stomach. His head had been thrown back, entirely caught up in the fit of laughter as he squirmed in his seat. Butterflies kicked up into his chest as Matthew watched him in silence, just taking the sight of him so careless in and committing it to memory. 

Until he realized Takashi had been looking back at him instead of the display screen nestled in the dashboard. The android brushed the tears from the corners of his eyes on the back of his hand and offered Matthew a wave, still smiling. 

 

Matthew’s watch vibrated. He’d felt it going off on the drive over, but had put it off in favor of conversation with the android that had been sitting beside him. The screen flickered on, illuminating the previously ignored text from Lance;

_Group: Lance, Pidgeon_

_I’m pretty sure Takashi definitely is Keith’s android guys._

A second vibration. Katie;  
 _pretty sure definitely? Lol. I figured. But he never said what his android looked like._

A pause. And then Katie again;  
 _Who's gonna address the elephant?_

Matthew frowned at the question glaring back up at him.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

 

Over a year’s worth of life left unlived had been rocketed from its sleep as Lance and Keith moved recklessly through the space. Keith had tackled Lance at the waist, but the sales associate had managed to slip through his arms- pulling himself up by the lip of the office desk. Unread mail spilled to the tile floor- ignored in favor of chasing the nimble man out of the office and through the kitchen. 

Lance ran a half circle jerking to a stop in the center of the long kitchen island, leaving Keith on the opposite side, staring him down. 

 

“Now what?” Keith challenged, letting his hands rest on the marble countertop, spread out on his sides.

 

Lance feigned left and Keith’s body jerked in response.

 

“Now? I fake you out. And get my revenge for this!” He grinned, pointing to the shiney splotch of red skin where the meat of his forearm had slid against the floor- bracing himself from Keith’s earlier tackle.

 

“I said sorry,” Keith smirked across the island, knowing full well Lance was playing a game and not looking for an apology.

 

“...not good enough. I demand redemption!” He shouted, planting a palm flat on the island, before throwing a leg up to slide across to Keith’s side.

 

The forum dweller picked up a mad sprint, barreling through the archway that led to the living room, with an unbridled laugh. Lance followed suit, scrambling around the end of the counter. A blur of black hoodie and ripped jeans tore up the stairs in the foyer and Lance followed suit, their footfalls a thunderous sound in the elaborate stairwell. Keith shot down the hallway, disappearing into a room on the left, and Lance had been resolved to follow suit until something caught his eye in the first bedroom on the right. 

The sales associate slowed to a stop, standing quietly in the doorframe of the room. 

It was a bedroom, but unlike the rest of the house no dust had been allowed to settle. It looked like a museum in the sense that nothing seemed to be out of place. There were no wrinkles in the bed where someone would sleep. Everything on the dresser top had been staged and placed meticulously- despite the streaks from being wiped down with cleaner. 

There was another picture, next to the sleek alarm clock, on the bedside table. It was a picture of Keith and unless he was surprisingly narcissistic Lance seriously doubted he liked falling asleep looking at himself.

So, this wasn’t Keith’s room then…

A mop of dark hair peered out from the room at the end of the hall, but Lance had been too focused on the grinning face caught in a picture frame.

How could someone look so different…?

 

“...hey…” Keith’s voice was quiet as pale fingers curled into the sleeve of Lance’s work shirt. 

 

“...hey, man…” Lance replied, slowly tearing his eyes away from that smile, “...what happened?”

 

He’d asked gently, his voice soft and confused, but even still Keith looked like he’d been punched square in the chest. Dark eyes shifted, finding the tile beneath their feet.

 

“...what do you mean?”

 

“That just...doesn’t look like you...” Lance nodded his head, lifting his chin towards the picture, “I know we kinda talked about...some serious stuff online or whatever...but I mean are you...are you alright?” 

 

A beat of silence passed between them. Blue eyes fell away from Keith, granting him privacy, or space, or whatever he needed in that moment. Keith worried his bottom lip and he moved to stuff his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie.

 

“I just had a lot less to worry about then,” he frowned.

 

A long silence followed. Lance hadn’t been sure what to say, if he should say anything, or if Keith wanted him to and Lance was failing him by feeling too awkward to say anything. Keith stared down at his hands. He’d open his mouth as if to speak, but snapped it shut with a click of his teeth. 

 

“This was Shiro’s room,” Keith finally offered, “He was always tidy. So, I kept it clean in case he...I dunno...showed up at the door one day…”

 

Lance felt his shoulders fall and he’d lifted his hand in an attempt to lay it on Keith’s shoulder, but the other man had ducked through the doorframe. He dropped down on the foot of the bed with a heavy sigh, picking idly at the fabric of the comforter. 

 

“It’s just really strange going from seeing the same face for almost ten years to them just being...gone.” 

 

The sales associate lowered himself to sit beside Keith, resting his elbows on his knees, and pressing his palms flat against each other. He chanced a look at the man beside him, finding Keith staring longingly at a photo frame on the dresser. 

 

“Shiro was the name of your Android?”

 

His questioned seemed to pull Keith back into the room with them.

 

“...yeah...he uh...wasn’t really _mine_. That always feels- I dunno weird? Like I owned him? Y’know?”

 

“So he was like- a roommate? Or something?”

 

“Y-yeah. I mean- It was like having an annoying roommate who cared about my grades and who I was fighting at school. High School me was convinced I was grown and didn’t need anybody, but y’know...looking back at teenage you now it’s like- psh, what did you know?”

Dark eyes lifted to look towards Lance. The tension pulled taught through Keith’s frame had grown slack, his shoulders fell, and the side of his knee lightly rested against Lance’s. 

 

“...yeah...I get that…” Lance nodded, remembering all too well how he’d been only a few years ago. The difference in who he was as a person making a handful of years seem like a lifetime ago. 

 

“I uh….something had been different...the last year or two. We kind of existed in this weird space- I say weird but it wasn’t weird _weird_...just...I don’t really have a name for it,” Keith shuffled his fingers, pulling them apart before sewing them between each other again, burning off nervous energy, “that’s what we were arguing about…the night he disappeared.”

 

“...did you...did you-“

 

“I never said anything. He said he might have loved me and I snapped. I was...I was scared. He’d already been there for so long. I felt like the timer on my good luck was just _counting down_. If he said something like that- if that meant something to me then he was important. Which just made it that much worse... We were just living on borrowed time because everyone- _everyone_ always left and I- what if something happened to him!? Y’know? What if _he_ left?” He laughed, a quiet huff of bitter sound, “...If I knew what was going to happen...I just wish I’d said something-...or...at least anything other than what I _had_ said...” 

 

Keith’s attention fell back to his feet and Lance frowned, rubbing his palms together absent minded, as he mulled over if he should have said anything about Takashi. The screen on his watch lit up displaying a reply to his earlier text from Katie. Blue eyes stared at the last line as they sat in silence- neither one of them strong enough to turn their attention towards the other. 

_Who's gonna address the elephant?_

Lance held his breath, waiting for a reply, waiting for instruction, but when it didn’t come he gathered up his courage. If he was wrong, if he’d put the wrong clues together, if he just assumed two androids were similar enough to be the same then- then he was risking more than he was ready to willing admit. He didn’t want to hurt Keith with misinformation, but he was so sure. Then, at the same time, a part of him from somewhere deep in a selfish pit, hoped he was wrong. 

He’d do it. 

He’d tell him.

“Hey...uh...Keith….,” when the deep plum of Keith’s eyes flicked up from the floor, to fix Lance with a wide eyed stare, he could feel his throat tighten around the air he separately tried to pull into his lungs,”...I got something...I should probably tell ya...about T-“

 

_Biiing_   
_booong_

 

“Yeah?” Keith pressed on, ignoring the ring of the door bell, and Lance hadn’t been ready for the insistence. 

 

Lance felt the heat that shot across his cheeks press into the tips of his ears. He wanted to look away, find something else to focus on, because the words were dying on his lips. The will to speak caught heavy in his chest. The courage to take the leap towards the truth, or a mistake, or change had fled. 

 

“Uh-!” The sales associate coughed awkwardly, “t-the doorbell? It’s p-probably Matt and Takashi. W-we should…?”

 

“...yeah, right...sorry…” 

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

_Pidgeon;_   
_You have to tell him, Matt. It’s the right thing to do._

The engineer narrowed his eyes at the screen of his watch, running his finger along the smooth button to dismiss texts, before hitting the button for the doorbell a second time. 

“Are you alright?” Takashi asked, standing behind him on the stone landing at the top of the stairs leading to the front door. 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Came his short reply. 

_Pidgeon;_   
_You can’t always control everything. You need to trust other people to handle things._

Another sweep of his finger. 

_Pidgeon;_   
_MATT._

Another sweep.

_Pidgeon;_   
_If you don’t tell them I will._

Another sweep. Matthew squinted to 

_Pidgeon;_   
_Okay. Cool. You take your time grappling with your fucking messiah complex. This is exactly what I’ve been talking about. You’re like this gatekeeper of information you have no business keeping in the first place. You never would have told me anything if I didn’t figure it out myself. You haven’t even told, Dad. You WON’T tell him because you feel like you’re somehow protecting everyone. Which you’re not!_

A glare and another sweep.

_Pidgeon;_   
_You can’t ignore me. If you told him he was an android you could enable all of his features and he’d be the best geologist in the field! BUT YOU’RE SCARED! Just like you’re scared right now, but it’s fucking selfish, Matt. And you know it. Keith can keep Takashi just as safe as you think you can._

Takashi shifted behind him, leaning forward to press the doorbell around the side of him, and Matthew tilted the watch a degree or two away. His fingers flew over the blue wash of light that slid his keyboard across the skin of his forearm. 

_Aren’t you in class?_ he shot back. 

 

. . .

 

_Pidgeon;_   
_You’re an asshole sometimes._

The front door pulled open and when Matthew looked up from his watch he was met with drained looking Keith and a fidgeting Lance. He frowned, looking briefly to Lance for some kind of clue into what it was he walking into. Panic rose into his chest when the thought that Lance may have said something to Keith before they could fill Takashi in, and if the decision for going forward was made without him. Lance must have seen it in Matt’s eyes because he shook his head violently where he stood a few feet behind Keith. 

Matthew could feel his heart pick up beating again like it had fallen asleep on the job and had been jolted awake. 

“Hey, guys,” Keith’s voice pulled him out of his internal rollercoaster ride. 

His watch lit up again. _”So,”_ was the only word that effectively registered, but he could see the lines of text that followed and sighed. 

“Hey, I gotta deal with this,” Matthew raised his hand, displaying the green flashing light on the corner of his watch that signaled a notification, “I’ll be in in a sec.”

Amber eyes flicked to make contact with the uneasy blue that had been watching nervously from over Keith’s shoulder. The dark haired man nodded, stepping aside to allow Takashi to enter. The engineer could feel the android’s gaze on him as he passed, but chose to feign ignorance, unable to carry the burden of possibly meeting his eyes. 

“Sure thing,” Keith concluded and Matthew set to making his way to the bottom of the steps, waiting for the click of the front door before pulling up Katie’s rant. 

_Pidgeon;_   
_So, what? You’re just going to let him go on thinking he disappeared and no one was looking for him? Or is it more that you don’t want him to go back to Keith?_

_Listen. I don’t tell Dad anything because if him being a android was something everyone knew he’d have to deal with that. Do you see the bullshit around us? Who do people blame for losing their jobs? Androids._  
1/2

 

 _Who do people preach in the street about being the scourge of the fucking earth, Pidge?! Androids. So, what? We just send this guy out into the world having to grapple with his own identity and OH! By the way! Now our scientists jobs are “in danger” because one of the most renowned geologist in the country is- YOU GUESSED IT. AN ANDROID!_  
2/2 

_Pidgeon;_   
_{Slow claps} It’s not your place to decide what other people should and shouldn’t deal with._

_Shouldn’t you be paying attention to class, Jiminy Cricket?_

_Pidgeon;_  
 _I’m just saying, God. I read your book and it seemed like you were all about doing the right thing._

Matthew’s fingers paused over the projected keyboard.

He wanted to be angry at her. He really did, but there was something about having your little sister snap back at you with something that makes you pause. He was...strangely proud that she’d managed to best him with that. It was infuriating- it really was, but when you remember your sibling drooling all over themselves and then suddenly you’re having an argument with an adult it...it caught him off guard. 

_I’m going to tell Takashi. Calm down. I got to be careful. He doesn’t have much of a sense of himself outside of what he remembers from a few months ago. It’s a lot. If he red lines on us it could be bad._

_Pidgeon;_   
_You’re the expert. Still an asshole._

_Love you too, baby s-_

“matt? MATT!!” 

The sound of the front door slamming into the stone face of the house at his back sounded like a gunshot and sent the engineer scrambling to his feet. He stumbled forward from the bottom step, his legs burning from the sudden burst of adrenaline and movement, and when he turned around he was met with the sight of Lance coiled into panic. 

“HE’S DOING THE RED LIGHT THING!”

Matthew’s eyes went wide and he bounded up the stairs two at a time as Lance continued to spill a jumble of information on the way into the foyer. 

“H-he saw a picture. It looked like him and h- he said he remembered! Which was great! Until the LED went red and h-“ they rounded the corner of the archway that led into the living from from the foyer and Matthew could see a frightened Keith trying to pull Takashi back from the table that ran the length of the wall sandwiched between a small library of books and French doors. 

“He’s bleeding! He’s bleeding all over the place! HE WON’T LET GO!” Keith’s voice cracked from the fear and the panic weighing so heavily in his tone. 

Both Matt and Lance’s hands descended on the android, grabbing him by the shoulders and helping Keith to pull Takashi away from the table. The engineer’s first instinct was to get a look at the LED on Takashi’s temple.

It was a deep red in color and the processing of the circular light had been spinning at a speed he’d never seen before. There had only be on or two cases of android’s corrupted by stress or physical damage that Matthew had ever had to come face to face with and while the processing speed was rabid it was never like this. He felt his stomach drop, knocking the strength out of his knees when he considered the usual protocol for bringing down an android in this condition without a black box. 

They could call the police, but typically that resulted in a bullet between the eyes and the suggestion to the nearest Android Retail store. 

He could shut him down manually, but more often than not that corrupted whatever data was left even further. No androids came back from a manual shut down without a black box. 

“Shit, shit…” he cursed under his breath and Lance’s head snapped in his direction, blue eyes wide in frenzy that only seemed to kick up a notch when it looked like Matthew was at as much of a loss as everyone else. 

“WHAT DO WE DO!?” Keith cried, trying to pry strong fingers away from the cracked picture frame caught in Takashi’s grasp. 

“I-I DON’T KNOW!” Matthew replied, grimacing when he could hear the endoskeleton of the android squeal from the streaks being cut into it by glass. 

Thirium poured over the curves of knuckles, over the wood of the picture frame, and pooled on the floor at Takashi’s feet. It fell in thick splashes, pushing out the diameter of the puddle below like a viscous sludge. 

A strong arm pulled away from Takashi’s chest. For a moment the three men stood in a sort of shock that Keith would have had the ability to pry an android’s arm away like that, until it slammed back with such an incredibly force that it sent Keith crashing into the coffee table at the front of the couch. Dust catapulted into the air. This time when it caught in the light it wasn’t the easy drift, but a raging, swirling storm of movement. Matthew and Lance only had a moment to hang limp in the shock of what they’d witnessed before Lance had been abruptly elbowed in the stomach where he’d been clinging to Takashi’s shoulder. Matthew followed soon after, grabbed by the back of his skull, and flipped forward over Takashi’s other shoulder- crashing into the display table in front, before curling into himself on the floor. 

His vision swam, but as the black started to creep into the corners he could see Takashi sobbing into his bleeding hands. The android’s knees gave way and he crashed to the floor in a heap, leaning forward over his bent knees, and pressed his forehead into sliced knuckles.

 

 

I’m nOT

 

 

It’s

 

juST THAT

 

Hahaha! Shiro you’re the 

 

I’m just saying!

 

Okay, Okay, if you won’t let me take candid

 

Pictures

 

Counting?

Fine

 

Ready Keith?

 

3

 

 

2

 

1

 

A smell. A smell was lingering, pulling on strings of memories and feelings. It was cold, sharp, outside air. There was warm notes, not as strong, something sweet and nutty. There was a third scent that overwhelmed all of the others it felt close, brushing beneath his nose in wisps of movement he couldn’t see or feel. It was light, airy, and clean with a warmth beneath it that felt comfortable. 

It was the smell of a person. It didn’t smell like the cold or the food. In a distinct way it felt manufactured, but not overpowering. Some sort of cologne or spray or detergent...but...it drug something up from the pit of his chest and it ached. It skimmed its fingers along the page of a memory, but it wasn’t strong enough to turn a page. 

His chest ached. That’s all it did was ache like some hydraulic press had seen fit to collapse it to the floor beneath him. 

“ _——HH_ HHAAAH!” as Takashi came to he’d fought the heavy feeling in his body with everything he had- forcing his eyes open, jolting into an upright position from his place on the...floor?

 

_Lance McClain.  
Rebel Tech: Sales Associate  
Weakness: Weak center of gravity.  
Wingspan:179.8cm  
Mentality: Wary _

_Matthew Holt.  
Rebel Tech: Program Engineer  
Weakness: Injured Knee.  
Wingspan:183cm  
Mentality: Anxious _

_Keith Kogane  
NO RECORD???  
Weakness: Current State//Concussed   
Wingspan: 178cm  
Mentality: Wary_

_Keith Kogane  
**Retired: Inheritance  
Weakness: Current State//Concussed   
Wingspan: 178cm  
Mentality: Wary _

It felt like he’d been receiving too much information too quickly for it to all process correctly. It was overwhelming at first, colors seemed more distinct and vibrant, the sounds around him too loud, and he could nearly feel the ridges of the Matthew’s fingerprints where they laid against the bare skin of his hand. 

He could feel his eyes shift in the sockets coming to land solidly on the Keith’s pale face. Keith looked sick, his eyes were wide and glassy. The color had drained from his cheeks. It looked like he’d seen a ghost. He moved gingerly- like his joints had been sore. Lance harbored an unhealthy green tinge to his usually warm complexion and sat crouched a few feet back, clutching his stomach. Matthew hadn’t looked much better. The thin skin of his left elbow had been split and bleeding. When he moved to shift closer Takashi could see that he’d been very careful in the way he moved his back. 

“....what….” he frowned, watching as Keith gingerly pushed himself up onto his feet,”....what’s going on?”

“You redlined again…” Lance offered, tapping a finger to his own temple to further explain. 

Takashi frowned, pressing his fingertips to the raised LED just beyond the end of his eyebrow. Dark eyes lifted from the scuffed tile beneath him to Keith. 

“I’m so-“

“Don’t apologize. Matt...explained what happened- you...it’s not your fault. Everyone’s fine,” Keith’s words seemed sincere, but something about him felt guarded. He’d stepped back further than either Lance or Matt and didn’t seem to willing to get any closer. His arms were crossed over his chest and he hadn’t met Takashi’s gaze for longer than a moment. 

“But I…” Takashi insisted, trying to find the words.

“Everytime Galra Industries erased or copied over or redownloaded...you...it corrupts the data just a little bit.” Matthew shifted where he was sitting on the floor and started to pick up the shards of glass that sat at the front of Takashi’s knees, “When it’s done enough it can cause a lot of damage. Couple that on top of the fact they’ve been putting you through a type of trauma….legal or not...that’s been proven to screw up processing...you’ve been dealt a shitty hand. No one here blames you- So, don’t blame yourself.”

“...I….I remember things, but it’s like looking into someone else's life….it’s not even full memories it’s...it’s smells or…..feelings…..” He looked to Keith, the object of those feelings- someone else’s feelings, swirling in his chest like warm honey. 

How could he love someone he’d never met so ferociously?

It didn’t make sense.

It never would because it wasn’t him who loved Keith that way. 

Keith shifted, uncomfortable beneath Takashi’s gaze. He kept his eyes trained down on the glass that Matt had started to pile off to the side onto the picture frame it had all been shattered from. 

Takashi’s eyes drifted down to his own hands. His fingers were sliced and knicked. The Thirium slowly drying in the creases of his hand looked like an elaborate web of bright blue weaving scores the soft tone of his skin. His right hand was a stark contrast of the white android skeleton and the Thirium caught in the grooves that had been scraped into it. 

Lance hovered, but couldn’t seem to decide on if he needed to help pick up the glass or if he should have been attending to Takashi. 

“I’m sorry,” Takashi offered again, hoping to lift some of the heavy atmosphere pressing down around the four of them. 

“Don’t be,” Matt frowned, carefully picking up the last few pieces,”It’s my fault. I should have said something.”

“Y-you _knew_?” Keith spoke up this time. The look of utter disbelief on his face had been directed at Matt, but Takashi could see that Lance had taken it like a four thousand pound truck to the chest. 

“We...we had our suspicions..” the engineer replied,”but...not any more...obviously…”

“ _We?_ ” Keith’s eyes snapped to Lance, “y-you knew too?”

“....sorta...but...that’s what I was going to tell you before the doorbell rang…”

Silence fell like a heavy veil between them.

Matthew pushed up onto his feet, holding the picture frame with the collected glass in his hand. Keith took it without a word, but the extra force he’d applied to take the picture frame into his hand was louder than any voice. Lance sunk further into the tiled floor beneath him and watched as Keith left for a room off of to the back of the house. 

“....he hates us....,” the sales associate confided into the tile. 

Matthew frowned and placed a gently hand on Lance’s shoulder. Takashi watched as he squeezed the muscle there with calloused fingers in silence, lost in his mind for a moment. 

“... now what?” Lance asked tentatively, looking up to Matt, and then to the android nursing his injured hands. 

The engineer just frowned. He didn’t seem to have an answer either, but the way amber eyes had shifted to Takashi was a silent enough cue that whatever it was would depend on him. The android watched Matthew’s face in silence. He was still trying to come down from the reeling in his head, but one very clear thought managed to declare it presence amids the muddle. 

The engineer was striking.

Even beneath the tired circles beneath his eyes and the cuts from the landfill he had a poetic face. His nose was surprisingly delicate. A curve swept from the bridge to the tip, leaving it upturned in the slightest. The apples of his cheeks had been freckled. The frown on his lips was a soft and pink. His jawline was sharp and squared- balancing the softer moments with hard lines and broad sweeps. 

The swell in his chest when he looked at Matthew had been eerily similar to the feeling for Keith in someone else’s life, but this was his own. It was his own chest and his own warmth. He couldn’t ignore that. He owned that feeling for the man looking back at him. It was his and his alone.

He was his own person- but carrying an ode to the life of a person passed. The Takashi from before deserved the respect of having existed at one time. Keith deserved the closure. 

Takashi pushed up onto his feet, trying to catch the leaking Thirium of one hand in the palm of the opposite. Matthew’s eyes widened and he didn’t look away from that shocked expression as he turned to follow after Keith. He could hear Lance shuffling behind him, whispering something to Matthew as Takashi walked on. 

As he stepped around the couch he could see the particles of dust slowly start to settle in the beams of light. They scattered across the back of the couch and clung to the smooth plane of the coffee table. He crossed the threshold of the living room and kitchen and as he rounded the corner he’d been met with the sight of Keith slumped over the island counter, his face buried into his arms. 

The first instinct was to lay his hand on his shoulder, to stand quietly as support until Keith was ready, but he second guessed himself. Was that something _he_ wanted to do? Or was that the the muscle memory left over from a person he couldn’t remember. It led to innaction- to him standing awkwardly a few feet away from Keith until the other man lifted his head from his arms with an amused huff. 

“You look confused,” Keith smiled and it was soft, and sad, and wet from the tears he’d been trying to shed privately. 

“I’m….” Takashi started, but realized he wasn’t sure what he _was_ at the moment, “I’m still kind of thinking about things…”

“Fair enough. You only got confronted by the fact you could have led multiples kinds of lives you don’t even remember up until this point. You can take time to think.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be. It’s my fault. I’m sort of glad you don’t remember that, but take my word for it.”

“I...I don’t feel like...that Takashi-“

“His name was Shiro,” Keith corrected softly, turning the picture frame upside down over the garbage can at the end of the island and dumping out the shattered glass, “and you don’t feel like Shiro because you’re not him.”

Something hurt. Something about that hurt deep in his soul. It felt like something in him died, but the death of it was liberating, bittersweet. 

“...I just...I wish I remembered- or remembered enough, but I...I’d hate to forget _this_...” Takashi had felt like he was advocating for his existence. 

He’d seen how androids out in the world were treated. He could search it on cybernet in his own mind. It could be pulled up on any tv channel. It was on the streets. It was in grocery stores. It was in peoples’ homes. Takashi was property in everyone’s eyes, but his own. If someone wanted him to forget; He would have to forget and that terrified him. 

Lance would be gone; Just a face in a store he’d never need to go back to. 

Matthew would be gone; He’d find no beauty in his face. There’d be no thrill from how incredibly brilliant he was. No appreciation for the way his eyes lit up in the face of some great puzzle. 

The fact that he would never want to live that way, but would be very much alive to see that pass- a passenger in a body that didn’t belong to him it...it was too much. 

“Calm down…” Keith’s voice pulled him from the spiral in his head. The question must have made it to his eyes because Keith had followed up with a tap to his temple. Takashi knew he’d been watching his LED. 

“...sorry…”

“You apologize a lot when you don’t need to,” he laughed, but it sounded closer to a sob, “you’re not going to forget this. Y-you’re your own person. You don’t have to stop existing because I want Shiro back. That’s not fair.” 

It wasn’t, but to hear those words come out of Keith’s mouth was…

“Thank you,” Takashi breathed, stepping forward to wrap his arms around Keith’s shoulders. 

Bleeding hands left smears of Thirium in their wake, but I neither one of them paid it any mind. 

Keith’s cheek pressed heavy into his chest and it was warm and wet. The smaller man’s fingers balled into the fabric of Takashi’s shirt so tightly that when it pinched the skin beneath his armpits. The android let his chin rest against the top of Keith’s head, stubborn, black locks of hair licked at the skin of his face, and he closed his eyes. The arms around him squeezed tighter, desperate holding fast to Takashi’s frame. 

“I’m sorry,” Keith sobbed into Takashi’s shirt.

Takashi knew the apology wasn’t meant for him. 

 

-_-_-_-_-

 

The group of them had been meeting up periodically at Keith’s house ever since the first encounter at The Holt’s home, mostly to patch in updates on what Takashi was slowly beginning to remember as his programming patched the holes left by the reboots and damage. Most of it was hazy recollections of the place where they’d kept him- which sounded more like some sort of basement coral than any place suited for keeping people. The revelations were small and far between, but it had given Keith the space he needed to deal with what had happened to Shiro. 

Takashi had stayed with Matt. They had tried to make everything feel normal again. That’s what Matt had explained to Lance over their shared lunch break at least. It wasn’t about picking Takashi’s brain for information as much as it was letting him move on from what bits of trauma he remembered. The singular room in Matt’s apartment had been split down the middle like a dorm room and slowly, but surely, things were falling into place. 

Lance had been spending the majority of his time at Keith’s. It was where he went after work or on his days off. He’d drag the recluse out to the mall or a movie. He had him take the long drive to Lance’s neighborhood because Keith didn’t have any “spots.” Lance had the park with the ducks that he always liked to feed, the trails that ran behind the baseball fields, and the abandoned building everyone in town swore was haunted. Even if Keith complained, as loud as he could, on the way there it wasn’t hard to tell that he eventually softened up and actually enjoyed the outings. The abandoned building had been the best place to take him by a landslide. Lance hated ghosts, but he figured it couldn’t have been so bad with someone else. 

He was wrong. 

It was horrible. 

He had three heart attacks and was nearly fatally struck in the head by some kind of winged bug, but Keith had been so into it. He was sweeping every nook and cranny with the beam of his flashlight- investigating every sound. There were a few times when he looked over his shoulder with a wide grin on his face that Lance had nearly suffered additional heart attacks. Albeit those were a lot nicer than the ones where he’d been scared out of his mind. 

It had been a long road before Lance felt like he could bring up a question that had been plaguing him for the better half of the last few months;

“Hey...uh...do you think we should invite Matt and Takashi to movie night sometime?”

Lance had never actually been able to ask that question, however, because his watch had gone off just as he’d worked up the nerve. 

Keith had been sitting on the couch beside him with the blanket from his bedroom wrapped half over one of his shoulders and a bowl of popcorn between his crossed legs. Lance was bundled up in an oversized hoodie, with the hood up, and his own bowl of popcorn on his lap. Keith’s house tended to drop in temperature pretty quickly in the winter months. He blamed it on all of the tile flooring. Lance blamed it on the fact that it was a haunted mansion and there was nothing on earth that could keep that much open space, full of that many restless spirits, warm for any length of time. 

Lance had been half watching the television screen and half watching Keith’s face to find the perfect time to ask, but continued to find himself distracted by the way he kept licking salt from his fingertips. The killer in the slasher flick had just slipped out from a dark corner and surely after he claimed his next victim there would be a lull in the action and Lance could just slipped the question in during the down time. 

The tell tale scream of some B movie actor getting knifed was the starting gun and- 

_vvvrrrrrrr vrrrr vrrrrrrrr_

Keith looked down at the watch on Lance’s wrist that had been casting a light blue hue onto the ceiling above. Blue eyes shifted from Keith’s face to the watch;

_HUNK_

“Answer it,” Keith prompted, looking back up to Lance with a sense of urgency in his eyes. 

“O-oh! Right, sorry,” Lance swept his finger over the answer icon and Hunk’s hushed voice carried over the receiver.

“Lance?”

“Yeah, man. What’s up?”

“Guess who just popped up on the schedule for catering…”

“Galra,” Keith answered before Lance could even form a coherent thought.

“Keith?” Hunk had sounded caught off guard for a moment, but collected himself quickly, “y-yeah, and if I’m going to get Shay out of there? This is going to be the best time to do it. They’s got a huge guest list. There’s no way everyone knows everyone on this thing. It’s...It’s a ton of people!”

Keith leaned forward from his place on the couch, moving Lance’s keys, and a couple of video game cartridges strewn across the coffee table to set down his bowl. Long gone was the thin layer of dust that permeated every surface of the house. Instead it had been replaced with a scatter of personal effects left from their meet ups with the rest of the group and Lance’s fingerprints. 

“So, we could get in there if we knew the ins and outs. And just looked like we belonged.” 

“Yeah and we’ve got extra uniforms stored away in case anyone’s gets dirty. I could get you guys some. If...if...y’know you guys were...still-“

“Of course we’re gonna help you man! Trust me nobody knows how shitty it is trying to get help for an android than we do!”

“We’ll get everyone out,” Keith hadn’t so much as batted an eyelash and Lance nearly fell off of the couch at the statement. 

“W-whoa! H-hold on!”

“No, if no one has done anything to bring that place down since Matt went to the police than we will.”

“Look I’m all for helping everybody out, but there’s no way a handful of us are going to start overturning an entire company and just setting androids free into the streets without them noticing. They’d kill us for sure! O-or at least get us all arrested. And I dunno what getting arrested is like as human? But I can tell you most arrested androids don’t come out of there functioning...”

“You don’t think the androids will help?!” Keith stood up from his place on the couch, shrugging off his blanket, and set his bowl of popcorn down on the coffee table, “look. If we are going to bother getting in there I can’t leave knowing I could have helped someone in Shiro’s situation. Their families are out there! And those androids don’t deserve to just sit in that horrible place and rot based on who they were lucky enough to know!”

“....He’s got a point,” Lance conceded, knowing all too well the reasons Keith kept to himself.

“And...and they don’t need to just be set out onto the streets...we could...Hey, Hunk?”

“...why do I get the feeling I’m going to regret this...Uh...yeah Keith?”

“How hard would it be for us to get our hands on a catering truck?”

“....yup...totally regretting it….”

 

-_-_-_-_- 

 

The answer was ; not hard at all. 

The unfortunate reality of the situation was that the entire catering service was entirely automated. Automated as in carried out by androids and there weren’t many limitations for equipment needed as long as it wasn’t a bizarre request. The only thing required was an ID scan to maintain records and accountability. 

A truck wasn’t an odd request- especially for an event as large as Galra Industries Annual Holiday Gala. Depending on how the food was stored and organized by their androids there was no way to effectively decide how many trucks would have been needed. 

Everything seemed to fall into place and if they played their cards right nothing too horrible could possibly go wrong. 

Matthew found himself tucked into the back corner of a refidgerated food truck, surrounded by Keith, Lance, Takashi, and Katie. He’d told her to stay home. He explained that it could put her future at risk- that no university was going to take a delinquent even if she was the most brilliant person he’d ever known. He had made one fatal mistake; forgetting the fact that no one told Katie anything she didn’t want to hear. 

The android curled up beside him, hugged his knees to his chest to avoid bumping into the enormous cake that had been baked in sections to be assembled once the catering company set up the table it would be sitting on. Apparently Matthew couldn’t tell him anything either. 

_”I have to do this, Matt,”_ He’d said and the engineer had to swallow all of the dread rising into his chest like bile. 

It wasn’t the case of a stubborn sister set on ruining her future just to drive a point home- as stubborn as she was brilliant. No, this was the case of a man that needed to make things right with himself. 

Over the course of three months Matthew had taken the roller coaster ride that came with only being able to watch as someone tried to heal their mind. There had been countless days spent tip-toeing around one another in a small apartment when Takashi’s programming struggled through moods. He’d been irritable in a way that was unlike him. Some days he couldn’t get out of bed. Some days he’d been riding a manic high, cleaning everything in the apartment, detailed in a way only an android could manage. He was shorter fused and unpleasant. He was distant. Then one moment, for no reason in particular, he needed to be close. He’d seek out Matt’s touch, or his side, or his comfort as he battled with something no one could see. The engineer could help with healing his body, but that was it. Takashi had turned down- leaving him feeling useless in a way Matthew has never had to grapple with before. 

It was hard, even with the LED on his temple dropping breadcrumbs for what would be coming Matt’s way, but they made it.

Just as the roller coaster came to a hissing halt Takashi wanted to send it off again and Matt wasn’t sure he was ready for that. He wasn’t sure either of them were ready for that. 

Amber eyes watched the way Takashi kept his attention on the perfect fondant coated cake in front of him. Keith found himself particularly interested in the spun sugar decorations on thin dowels. Lance had been shivering, trying to pull the fabric of the catering shirt closer against his body in a desperate attempt to maintain his body heat. Matt’s teeth clattered against each other as he fought the same battle. The downside to the uniforms was that they’d been designed for androids who could have their thermoreceptors turned off when they were on truck duty. 

Takashi reached an arm out, pulling Matt flush against his side. The roles had been reversed on the nights Takashi’s mind refused to grant him any piece. They spend the early morning hours on the couch with Matt’s arm across the androids shoulders as they shook from sobs he was too tired to hold back. The touch had been so familiar Matthew had barely registered it until he caught Keith looking their way with a quizzical expression on his face. 

“...You...grew your hair out?” Keith asked quietly and Takashi blinked, turning to face him with a sheepish smile. 

“Uh..yeah...I’m just,” he paused, running his fingers through the locks that danced across the curve of his shoulders, “trying different things. Uh...figuring out what’s...me...I guess…”

Keith nodded slowly, fidgeting with the hem of his sleek black apron, his eyes falling back to the spun sugar. 

“It looks cool.”

“The stubble makes you look edgy…” Lance offered and Takashi laughed, running his fingers over the hair along his jaw. 

“You look like you have a vlog comparing granola brands,” Katie chimed in.

Keith barked out a laugh, nodding vigorously in agreement. Lance wiped tears from the corners of his eyes as he tried to calm down the laughing fit Katie’s comment inspired. Matt has nearly choked on his own spit, rolling onto his side, and braced his forearms against the floor of the truck in order to ride out the coughing fit that followed. 

The shift in their little compartment of the catering truck had signaled their arrival and the mood between them sombered. A few nervous glances passed through the group as the soft thud of the driver side door reverberated through the walls. There were voices, low, murmurs that were too hard to decipher through the thick walls of the refrigerator truck. Katie reached into the pocket of her apron, producing a handful of tiny, metal, disks and held them out in the palm of her right hand for the rest of them to take. 

The chorus of confused stares had her rolling her eyes, before plucking a disc from her palm, and placing it against her own temple. They were false LEDs and with one easy press to the center of the disc a thin line of light blue light illuminated the perimeter. Keith was the next member of their group to pluck his own LED from Katie’s trembling palm, followed by Lance, and finally Matthew. 

The click of the door latch punctured the tense silence they sat in and as the back door lifted the light outside poured through- bright and blinding. Lance’s back went pin straight where he sat and the group collectively held their breaths as someone's massive figure casted over the contents of the truck, engulfing them in shadow.


	10. Mercury

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group searches for Shay and finds more secrets hiding in the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spurred on by some amazing music I heard on a twitch stream recently I bring you chapter 10! One chapter left y’all! Whew! 
> 
> Thank you so much for all of the support! I’m working hard to get this done so I can catch up on my reading and return to favor to you truly amazing people. I have no words for how much I appreciate y’all. <3 Thanks for sticking with me!
> 
> WARNINGS: ABUSE MENTION, HOUSE FIRE MENTION, FIREARM, CHARACTER DEATH

 

“Okay, guys this is it.”

 

The back of the refrigerator trunk dipped as Hunk planted his foot onto the back landing and lifted himself up into the compartment with the rest of them. He looked nervous, but resolved in a way Takashi hadn’t seen from him since they’d met. There was a steady cast of purpose beneath thick, furrowed brows, and orange headband.

 

“I’ve got to direct the rest of traffic with the catering, but I’ve got the keys the castle. If you need anything give me ping and I can get to you without drawing too much attention,” he’d been building steam, his chest lifted with the inhale through his nose, “the fights are usually a big deal. They gather people up. I’ll make sure to assign one of you guys as tray carrier. The...uh...other entertainment is tucked away in rooms..so…”

 

Hunk trailed off, worrying his lip, and wringing his fingers. He’d been anxious almost the entire time leading up to this and Takashi could understand why. Every moment they sat on their hands meant the longer Shay spent with Galra Industries and now that it was here any wrong move could spell disaster. Takashi wasn’t a fortune teller- he couldn’t assure Hunk of anything, but-

 

“Don’t worry, buddy,” Lance spoke up from his spot at the back of the truck, untangling his legs from Keith’s, and the metal scaffolding of a serving cart, before stepping into the lights pouring through the open mouth of the container, “we’re gonna get her.”

 

Takashi felt Keith tense beside him, but Lance turned his attention away from the hand now on Hunk’s shoulder to the dark haired man still curled up at the back of the truck as if he’d felt it himself.

 

“We’re gonna get everybody out of here,” the sales associate smiled, and gray eyes watched the way Keith’s lips pulled up, ever so slightly, in the corners.

 

“That’s right,” Katie pushed up onto her feet, stepping over Matthew’s shins, and placing her hand on Hunk’s free shoulder, “everything’s gonna be fine, Hunk. We’re in this together.”

 

The catering android looked surprised for a moment, regarding his friends with side eyes, until two strong arms swung out to the side and squeezed them into his chest in a massive hug. He buried his face into the kaleidoscope of soft brown and dirty blonde hair where Lance and Katie had been nearly pressed through each other. There were muffled voices, quiet giggling, and a soft easy laugh.

 

“You guys are the best,” Hunk declared, surfacing from the soft curls of hair, and releasing Lance and Katie in favor of rubbing at his eyes with the backs of his hands.

 

Keith was the next to stand, gingerly moving past Takashi, and then Matthew.

Takashi watched him. He watched the languid movement of his body through the cluttered space of the truck and he could see it. Reminder of the beauty it would have been easy from someone to fall in love with and he’d grown into an understanding with the other him. Over time he’d given Shiro the time and the space to exist in his world and, instead of trying to desperately erase him, the other part of him occupied a space. It was a space where in moments Keith looked softer and sweeter. It was space where the way he moved was too familiar.

At first he’d try to shove it down, stuff it away somewhere, but now he acknowledged it, gave it the time, gave it the space, and let it pass. It was easier to be at peace with it that way.

This was one of those moments.

A lithe, pale, hand lifted from Keith’s side and came to rest atop Hunk’s head for a brief moment as he passed, dropping down onto the garage floor with a slap of sneaker soles. Lance followed, his hands pressed into his pockets. Katie stepped down, laughing when Lance playfully elbowed Keith in the side, sending him bumping into her. Hunk stepped down and the back of the truck lifted, sending Matthew stumbling into the back wall of the truck just as he’d pushed up onto his feet.

 

“You alright?” Takashi asked with a soft smile.

 

“I really got to lay off the day drinking,” Matthew joked, offering a hand for Takashi to take.

 

And he did, gratefully, before he pushed up onto his feet. The pair of them made their way to the mouth of the truck before carefully stepping off the grated, metal, step that hung beneath the door.

 

“I sent everyone Hunk’s layout. There’s places missing where the catering wasn’t planned out ahead of time,” Katie slid her thumb over her watch, pulling up the map, before swiping sideways on the light blue projection, “but if we’ve got trays we can fill in the gaps walking.”

 

Takashi watched five sets of eyes as they took in Katie’s handiwork. She was impressive- truly even being the youngest in the group she’d proven time and time again to be more organized and ingenuitive than almost all of them.

 

“Hey, hold up a sec,” Hunk mumbled, swiping his finger over the projection on Katie’s wrist, and she watched him curiously as he typed away, “if we add everyone onto it...kinda like a...like a shared file? Then we can all edit...and it’ll update in real time…”

 

He finished up the last of whatever it was he’d been typing, his tongue pressed beneath his top lip in concentration, and a notification pinged through the groups watched- and across Takashi’s processing screen.

 

“Brilliant, Hunk,” Katie beamed.

 

“I have my moments,” Hunk grinned.

 

Hunk, however, always kept pace with her. The two of them had become fast friends, always tinkering away with programs and projects. Lance often laid on Katie’s bed and played with rover when she and Hunk got really wrapped up in something. Keith would take BaeBae outside and it had done wonders for running off all of her energy. Matthew said she hadn’t chewed the baseboards since their group began hanging out more regularly at the Holt’s.

 

“Alright, so we’ll work in zones then. Saves us tripping over each other. Katie and Hunk; you guys cover the areas around the kitchen. You’ll look less out of place at the center of the catering stuff if you stick to the first floor. Matt and Takashi,” Keith was still having snags when he wasn’t focused entirely on the name to use, but he continued on,”you’ll cover the second floor. Lance and I will work opposite of you guys and the four of us can try to find any suspicious rooms.”

 

“Got it,” Hunk and Katie replied in unison.

 

Takashi could see Matt’s face sink just a bit at the edges. It was probably scary to be separated from his sister in what could potentially turn out to be a dangerous situation. The siblings had a tendencies to let their mouths get them into trouble- often too tempted to stick to authority than keep their heads low. At the same time they’d both been smart enough to get themselves out of their own mess.

 

“Kick some ass, baby sis,” Matt grinned, reaching forward to pull his sister into a tight hug.

 

“All the ass,” Katie verified, tiny fingers curling into the pressed fabric of Matthew’s white, uniform shirt.

 

When they parted Katie stepped towards Hunk and held an arm out for him to take. He pressed his fingertips to his chest, miming the flutter of a hand fan, before looping his arm through hers.

 

“Why I am ever so honored~” he laughed, working through a heavy southern belle accent.

 

Takashi smiled watching as they disappeared through the French doors that led to the kitchen. When he turned his attention back to the remaining group he’d caught Keith’s eyes and found himself caught in quiet moment.

 

“Please be careful,” the words had left his mouth before Takashi could catch the process.

 

“You guys too,” Keith replied quietly before turning to head towards the same doors Hunk and Katie had left through.

 

Lance picked up a walk backwards, saluting with a sort of flare only he could ever muster with something as militant as a salute.

 

“We’ll see you on the other side,” he grinned, before spinning on his heel to follow after Keith.

 

——

 

Beyond the French doors the kitchen was massive. Stainless steel islands ran down the center of the galley style layout with numerous pot racks suspended from the high ceiling. The androids of the catering crew slid through the the area like perfectly orchestrated worker bees. In through one of the swinging doors off to the left, to an island covered in a tray of h’orderves, and back out of the swinging door further down the same wall.

Matthew looked to Takashi, watching the steady sweep of yellow through is LED as he thought something over. The uniforms Hunk had supplied them were all the same size, made to fit the same model of android that currently swept past them like a steady river. They were a few inches shorter than Takashi which meant they’d needed to spring for his own pair of dress slacks. The white, button down, dress shirts had been forgiving enough on all of them. Katie had more room than most, but wasn’t swimming. Lance had been longer than the the uniform called for which left his wrists and inch or two more exposed than others. Keith had been an almost perfect fit which had left the aforementioned sales associate grumbling. Matthew had been a close second for the fit in the uniforms, leaving him to sit rather comfortably, but Takashi had more bulk on his frame. The fabric was tight through his arms, chest, and shoulders, but tapered off at the waist well enough. The black suspenders of the uniform were adjustable despite not needing to be by design which had been a godsend as the group of them became hyper aware of the variances in their torso lengths. The black bow ties were clip-ons which saved a great deal of frustration.

 

“Here goes nothing,” Takashi spoke up, pulling Matthew from his own thoughts, before moving to zipper into the procession of androids to grab his own tray.

 

Matthew followed, albeit a bit more clumsily, before lifting his own tray from the stainless steel countertop, and following at Takashi’s heels.

The house was packed.

The engineer hadn’t been ready for the sheer volume of sound and bodies on the other side of the swinging door, but it made the swarm of androids in the kitchen look miniscule by comparison. He’d been thankful that make of each catering android had been different- more than likely making it easier for someone to pinpoint which android had their favorite plate without having to get close enough to check all of their trays. It made shifting through the crowd unseen and unheard more or less effortless despite a few shoulder bumps.

 

“So, very sorry, sir.” He’s heard one of the catering androids say out in the foyer, on the stairs leading up, further down the hall.

 

“So, very sorry, sir.” Matthew repeated verbatim, keeping an eye on the broad shoulders parting the sea of people in front of him;

 

Until Takashi froze.

 

Matthew pushed forward, more frantic than any android would have moved, but something sharp had shot through the air- pinning Takashi where he stood and he couldn’t leave him there.

The hallway was wide, but claustrophobic as he weaved through on coming traffic. A shoulder there, an apology- forward. Forward. FORWAR- a hand. There was a hand on his tray and for a brief moment he wanted to ignore the coo of “these look delicious” in favor of catching up the last few feet, but if he risked that there’d be whispers.

Matthew held his breath, keeping his eyes forward, and allowing the woman her time with the snack he’d been offering.

 

“No matter how good they get with making them look human they sure as creepy, hm?” She spoke with no hush in her voice. Out right, to his face, but directed at her friend who’d stepped up to take a bite for herself.

 

“Mm,” the friend concluded with a thoughtful hum, “it’s the eyes. This guy’s on another planet.”

 

It wasn’t far off. His body had been there putting on an act for the other human beings around him, but his mind was a few more feet down the hall.

 

“Handsome,” a finger trailed along the curve of his jaw and he prayed she didn’t notice the tension from his teeth clenching, “but soulless...sad…”

 

“Mm,” her friend agreed.

 

And the two of them were off.

Matthew was off, like a shot from a gun, he’d walked with fire at his heels until Takashi turned abruptly to face him. He blinked, caught off guard, and nearly spilling his tray onto the expensive tile floor as the android grabbed him by the shoulder and directed him sideways. He could hear a door opening behind him and in front of him Takashi’s lips;

 

“Sendak,” he’d mouthed.

 

And then everything went dark.

 

“It’s Sendak,” Takashi repeated out loud, dropping his hand from Matt’s shoulder, and balancing his tray above them to avoid digging it into the other man’s chest.

 

The tray in Matthew’s hand had been wedged awkwardly beneath Takashi’s opposite arm. It was hard to tell in the pitch black, but one or two of his bite sized snack had to of ended up on the floor. He moved to take a step back, but found the heel of his dress shoe pressed unceremoniously into the lowest tier of the shelving at his back.

 

“...s-Sendak..?” He kept his voice low, trying his best not to let his pulse run wild when he felt his breath bounce off of Takashi’s chest.

 

“He picked me up the last time I was with you,” the android clarified, raising his hand higher to afford Matthew more clearance from his tray, “he knows what I look like. He’ll recognize me.”

 

“...ah, the closet makes sense now…”

 

“How’s this?”

 

He could feel Takashi shifting in front of him, but there was no way for him to see. Most times it was easy to forget that Takashi was head and shoulders above any human on most levels, but this was not one of them. He more than likely saw everything just fine, albeit colorless, while Matthew was met with a solid wall of black on all sides.

 

“Hold on,” the engineer laughed quietly, tapping the upper right corner of his watch, blinking the spots out of his eyes as the screen lit up a soft yellow hue. The flashlight mode engaged, “there we go..”

 

As he looked up, away from the screen of the watch, he could see a shift behind Takashi’s eyes. It was more than likely the lense that allowed for him to see in the dark, but the soft brown looking down at him now left the air caught in his throat.

 

“...uh…” Matthew offered dumbly into the closet space.

 

Amber eyes lifted, catching the soft white that had been present at the front of the android’s head since they’d met, but beyond it the black locks were nowhere to be found. It was all white, casted a soft gold in the light of his watch that seemed to be as joyously caught in Takashi’s eyes as Matt was.

 

“...is it still obvious?” The android asked, breaking the engineer from his temporary stupor.

 

He looked concerned, the LED at his temple rolling an uneasy yellow, more than likely trying to read the emotion on Matt’s face and coming up as empty handed as his human counterpart.

 

“...the...your scar...might still give it away…” he managed to tear his eyes away, quickly setting to finding the message icon on the face of his watch. The tray on his hand felt like it weighed a hundred pounds as he tried to keep it steady- typing with the opposite hand, “...Lance is coming…”

 

“...O-okay…” the android answered quietly.

 

Telling time would have been difficult if his watch hadn’t been starring the two of them directly in the face. It had been almost a full two minutes of committing the tops of their dress shoes to memory before the clatter of a plastic tube echoed through the closet. At the side of his foot sat the cosmetic (apparently a contour pen) he’d requested Lance bring in order to cover up the scar that ran across Takashi’s nose.

 

“Here,” Takashi whispered, nudging Matthew’s elbow, instructing Matt to raise his arm up to meet his own.

 

There was a silent shuffling of samples from one tray to the other, before the android pressed his tray between Matthew’s hand and the tray now carrying all of the samples.

And then the weight was gone.

Both trays stacked and samples haphazardly scattered across the surface of Takashi’s now sat easily in the android’s hand as he raised it above both of their heads.

 

“Thanks,” Matthew breathed, pressing his back into the shelves behind him, and grimacing as he slid his way down to the floor enough to snag the pen with his fingertips,”...almost...almost...got it.”

 

Takashi’s free hand slid down, offering to help Matthew back to his feet, and the engineer found himself lost for a second time since he’d been ushered into the closet like a wayward steer on a cattle run.

He shook his head.  
He took the hand.  
He pushed down into the heels of his feet and cleared his head.  
Takashi watched.

 

And the LED spun a lazy honey color.

 

“...probably the lighter side…” the android offered, gently nudging the man before him into drive after he’d stalled with his eyes on the contour pen like it was something foreign.

 

Takashi ducked his head forward in order to give Matthew enough reach without his elbows slamming into the sides of the closet, and the hand providing the soft watch light lifted- pressing gentle fingertips beneath Takashi’s chin.

 

“Y-yeah, definitely,” he chuckled, before pulling the clear cap off of the side labeled _highlighter_ with his teeth.

 

At the start of it Matthew’s hand had been shaking from nerves, amoung other things, but the soft edge of the concealer pen pressed to the corner of Takashi’s cheek like silk. The poor lighting made the ability to gauge how natural the easy press of color looked in comparison, but he could already tell coloring in the lines like a pencil wasn’t going to cut it.

His jaw shifted in thought, rolling the cap between his teeth, and the hand steadying Takashi’s chin moved to gently smudge the color across the bridge of the android’s nose. With each feather light slide of finger the darker color of scar disappeared until there was a near flawless span of skin tone from end to end. Matthew’s eyes lifted again, braver this time as they set on a pair of calmer brown.

The cap of the contour pen clicked into place and he slid it into his back pocket.

 

“....better…?” Takashi had asked, his voice low.

 

“....different….” Matthew replied,”...not better…”

 

The light of Takashi’s LED casted bright against the right side of the closet and faintly, at the back of his mind Matthew noted the shift of blue, to a sharp yellow, to the easy pale blue again- but then he wasn’t paying the swivel of light much attention when he felt Takashi’s lips press to his.

His eyes went wide as his heart picked up a furious beating against the back of his ribs, like an animal caught in cage, and the soft press of Takashi’s mouth had taken a stick to the bars. The engineer’s mind reeled, frantically trying to sort the situation at hand through the adrenaline from Takashi nearly getting caught and the warm heat in his chest- pressing the last of his breath out in a pitiful sounds against the android’s lips.

Takashi’s weight shifted back, but it was in that moment that Matthew found his body again and chased the feel of those lips.

The hand that had been busy seating the contour pen into his back pocket slid forward, tentatively pressing battered fingerprints into the soft material of button down shirt. The warm hum against his mouth urging its brother to join it and they roamed over a body he’d known in clinical terms, but this was another world. They dragged across the broad expanse of chest and the dips and rolls of skin sautered back together- leaving trails for them to follow. The light tap of metal tray against closet wall echoed above them as an arm encircled Matthew’s waist. The strength of it pitching his hips forwards and the press of shelving was no longer at his back.

The air in the closet was warm and suffocating in a way that made Matthew’s head swim. Maybe he’d just forgotten to come up for air. He couldn’t remember anymore. Maybe he’d never come up for air and he was content with that notion until a bump against the closet door set his heart spiking into his throat and the android in front of him jolting to attention.

The doorknob clattered, the weight on the opposite side of the door seeing creakes into the hinges.

Both of them starred warily at the door.

And then the giddy laughter from the hall, so close in that moment, moved on.

Matthew’s chest ached in a way that had him honestly concerned for his health, the hands once so eager to follow the map of his handy work, now clutched at the buttons of his own shirt- balled into the fabric over his heart.

 

“...I’m sorry…” Takashi- and Matthew slowly turned his head to look at him, eyes wide, because he couldn’t for the life of him understand what there was to apologize for.

 

 

“N-no,” he managed, “nothing to be sorry for. I…”

 

“...I didn’t want to miss that moment,” the android continued, “I think I missed it in another lifetime and I don’t want to miss it now. This is...this is dangerous...out of all of us if they find me-“

 

“...They’ll more than likely shut you down...we might get slaps on the wrist, or fines, or whatever for trespassing, but you’ve got the most skin in this game…” Matthew nodded, watching Takashi’s face with a frown, “...I know...it’s gotta be scary…”

 

“A little,” Takashi laughed, burning off whatever nerves has managed to accumulate along with the heavy thoughts.

 

“...I’m glad we didn’t miss this…”

 

“...me too…”

 

 

———

 

 

The second floor had been fairly uneventful with the exception of Matt’s Hail Mary for something to hide Takashi’s scar. Lance had shook his head, ducking off into a corner to read the message, all too aware that the engineer didn’t have the slightest clue about matching skin tone when it came to cosmetics. Nothing he had on him was going to do the android any good. The contour pen had been the best he could manage- hoping that the two of them would have the foresight to mix the highlight shade and the contour shade until it looks right.

Keith had been making rounds slipping through party goers like an antisocial ghost. Every now and then they’d meet eyes and shift positions for better access to doors they hadn’t managed to disappear though. Lance pushed out from his corner, offering a delightful smile to the hands that reached out from the sea to procure a treat, while making his way closer Keith.

The front half of the house on the second floor had been cleared. Katie and Hunk were making quick work of the first floor. All that had been left was the east wing that Takashi and Matt were on their way towards and the west wing that Keith had been blazing a trail towards like a stubborn dog on a trail.

The guy was determined- Lance would give them that.

Blue eyes followed the tuft of dark, unkempt, hair over the tops of meticulously styled ones until it dipped around a corner.

 

“Would it kill you to wait for me, mullet…” he grumbled under his breath, just barely dancing around a man that had his attention thoroughly captured by something other than a tray boy.

 

When he turned the corner Lance could see Keith a few feet down the hall with his ear pressed to the door. The burnt plum of his eyes had been pressed into a thin, seething slit, and Lance felt a prickle along the back of his neck where tiny hairs shifted.

He knew that look. It was the same look he’d seen on Keith’s face before he took justice into his own hands. In smaller cases he was just the one brave enough to tell some self righteous dick to shove it where the sun don’t shine.

In the worst cases-

_KA-CLACK!!_

-he was kicking in a locked door of a house they had no business being in.

Lance could hear the curious murmurs of the voices just around the corner where the majority of the party on that floor seemed to have gathered and rushed forwards.

 

“Getin,getin,getin,getin!” He urged frantically pushing Keith from behind and into the room.

 

The sales associate pushed the door closed, frowning at the space allowed between it and the frame where the lock had blown through the door moulding. It was then that he heard what sounded like sobs…

 

“I’m- I’m sorry!” It was a woman and when Lance turned around he could see Keith storming towards the bed, “he was- he jus-“

 

Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, the strands dyed in soft pastels at the bottom, long enough to swing about the soft curve of her hip. The blue speckle of at the corner of her mouth was enough to tell the story of what had likely happened before Keith so surreptitiously kicked the door in.

Androids didn’t often bruise, but the man would have needed to put considerable force behind his hand in order to split a lip.

 

“Don’t apologize,” Keith interrupted, holding out a hand for the girl to take, “I heard- and we’re getting you out of here.”

 

Blue eyes drifted to the man laid out on the bed, a pool of red accumulating along the crescent shaped gash on his temple, and the lamp base that more than likely put it there.

The woman blinked, looking between Lance and Keith with an expression that looked every bit as confused as it was skeptical- but there was hope stirring below.

 

“W-what are you doing here? You’re not androids…” she spoke quietly, pressing her fingers to the faux LED at Keith’s temple.

 

“My name is Keith. That’s Lance,” he waved from his spot at the door, “We can explain later…where is everyone else?”

 

“...Ezor…” she looked to Lance as proper of an introduction as the three of them could hope for current circumstances considered.

 

Lance shifted, keeping his back pressed to the door to keep it closed. Keith stepped forward, grabbing the body on the bed beneath the armpits, and dragging it off of the bed.

 

“We need to hide this,” he groaned, pulling the man across the floor, leaving a dark streak of blood on the polished wooden floor,”Ezor...grab the sheets and the pillow off the bed, please.”

 

Ezor nodded, quickly pulling the fitted sheet off by the corner, and wrapping it around the soiled pillow- leaving the comforter to fall to the floor beside the bed. She hunkered down, wiping up the trail left in Keith’s wake with the bundle of bedding in her hands. Lance jumped in his skin as Keith pressed the body up into the closet with a loud thud, watching warily as Ezor followed the last of the trail, before she stuffed it into the closet with the man.

 

“Uh...guys…?” Lance prompted, keeping his voice low, “...maybe it’s just me..b-but that’s an actual dead body...should we like- I dunno, call the cops or something? Keith you got your stuff all over that dude now. Th- that’s they’re going to think you helped!”

 

The Cuban shifted nervously at the door, the heat of panic and realizations pricking along his skin. It didn’t feel real. He’d seen it, with his own eyes, but it felt like he was just watching a cutscene in a video game...or a movie...or...or something. His chest felt tight. Too tight. And dizzy. The room was _swimming_ around him- and his chest _hurt_ now- and-

 

“Lance!”

 

And then Keith was in front of him- he wasn’t sure when that happened.

 

“...w-what…?”

 

“You need to breathe. _Slowly_ ” Keith’s hands were on his shoulders, but compared to his own skin they felt ice cold he thin fabric of Lance’s dress shirt.

 

“You’re freaking out, kid. You’re gonna pass out if you don’t relax and then we’re all going to be in big trouble.” Ezor explained, standing a few feet behind Keith. Lance could see her watching on, nervously casting glances to the now closed closet door.

 

“I just…”

 

The same cold hands had lifted from Lance’s shoulders and pressed into the meat of his cheeks, cupping his jaw. Deep colored eyes fixed on his, steadying, behind lashes he hadn’t noticed were so long before. Keith had moments when he’d look otherworldly and Lance couldn’t believe “after shoving a human body in a closet” was one of those moments. He felt sick. Really, truly, sick to his stomach with the worry in his gut.

 

“Lance, I know. I’m freaking out too, okay? But we’re not going to help anybody if we get caught in this place now. Ezor can tell us where the other androids are- we have to help as much as we can.”

 

“...o...okay?” It was the best answer Lance could muster.

 

“Ezor,” Keith looked over his shoulder at the android behind him, his hands slowly warming up against Lance’s cheeks,”where is everyone else?”

 

“There’s a stairwell to the basement,” Ezor explained as she grabbed the fallen comforter from the floor and smoothed it out over the bed, “just off of the kitchen, before you get to the garage door.”

 

Keith nodded, his hands falling away from Lance’s face in favor of typing something up on his watch. Lance’s watch lit up with a notification light. The man in front of his stepped back, his dark hair clinging to a damp forehead, his hands shaking as he typed up a second message on his watch. Keith looked pale- looked as sick as Lance felt despite how calmly he’d been managing to speak.

 

Then his eyes looked up from his watch and fixed on Lance.

 

“Matt and Takashi are going to meet us three in the hall and we’re all going to head down to meet up with Hunk and Katie…” he breathed, a green hue beneath his pale complexion.

 

Lance frowned, nodded. He reached his arms out to wrap around Keith’s shoulders and pull him into a tight hug. Keith went rigged beneath the weight of Lance’s arms, but after a moment passed he seemed to melt into the contact.

 

“We can do this,” Keith assured, his voice muffled against the crook of Lance’s neck.

 

“...yeah...of course…” Lance confirmed, pushing his nose into the dark strands of defiant hair that flicked up around the curve of Keith’s ear.

 

______

 

 

 

“Well, it’s...definitely locked…” Katie confirmed, rubbing her fingers across her shin as she regarded the lock pad on the basement door.

 

“...I can’t believe I’ve walked passed this door a hundred times and didn’t even think that Shay was just on the other side…” Hunk breathed, gripping the cover of the security pad on the sides before pulling the face of it off with a sharp tug.

 

“...no point in getting down on yourself now. We need to figure out how to get this thing open before the rest of them get down here. A huge group of “androids” all huddled around the super secret door isn’t exactly inconspicuous,” she slid into the space between Hunk and the door without a word, setting to picking through the technology in the belly of their last obstacle, “and I’m guessing if I just pull this one…”

 

“It might be the white one,” Hunk offered, waggling his index finger at a white wires snaking through the plastic fittings,”the one you’ve got isn’t as much power. It might just be for the bells and whistles of the pad.”

 

“...excuse me..” Katie shot a feisty look over her shoulder, “I’ve seen enough wires. How many security pads have you picked through in your career as a catering android?”

 

“Wow, uh, okay. Except I have the power of a search engine in my brain and I’m telling you that the wire you’ve got isn’t pushing any major power,” Hunk bantered in return.

 

“It’s the wire for the alarm when the pad loses power,” she explained, pushing her glasses further up her nose before pinching the wire between her fingertips and pulling.

 

“Ooo, gotcha,” Hunk nodded, leaning over Katie’s shoulder to get a look at the dismantled pad as she worked on the second wire, “pretty smart.”

 

“Naturally,” the youngest Holt replied with a mischievous grin.

 

She had been about to say something else when the loud clack of the door’s lock disengaging shot through the small hallway like a gunshot.

 

“....jeez…” Hunk breathed, placing a solid palm on the face of the door and pushing it open.

 

“....wow...creepy stairwell into the basement and everything...they really went all out with this evil company spook factor didn’t they…” Katie mumbled, dropping down onto the first step.

 

“What the _hell_ are you two doing?”

 

“OHCRAP!” Hunk yelped, his back going pin straight, and Katie nearly threw herself down the rest of the stairs.

 

“We can explain!” Katie was quick to offer, but paused when she saw who had been standing at the mouth of the tiny enclave they hunkered down in, “M-Matt?”

 

“Yeah,” the oldest Holt hissed quietly, with Keith, Lance, Takashi, and a woman she didn’t recognize standing behind him, “we said to wait! Were you two seriously just going to go down there on your own?”

 

“No, that’d be insane. I was just trying to see if I could get a look at what was down there,” his stubborn little sister replied.

 

“What are you doing?” _This_ voice she didn’t recognize and judging by the synchronized yelps of surprise neither did the rest of the group standing behind her, “Ezor?”

 

Katie blinked, watching as a towering figure stepped into the stairwell with her with wide eyes. The light from the hall casted across a woman with a sharp, squared face and broad shoulders. Her hair had been cropped short and stubborn cowlicks saw fit to fan out the thick strands of hair along the crown of her head like plumage.

 

“Zethrid!” The woman that had joined their motley crew squeezed past Takashi, then Katie, before flinging her arms around the massive android’s neck with a joyous squeal.

 

“Ezor, what the hell is going on? Are you okay!? Who are these people?”

 

“They’re getting us all out of here.”

 

“How can you be su-“

 

“I’m sure,” Ezor verified, looking over her shoulder to Lance and Keith who looked like they were both suffering from seasickness.

 

Zethrid seemed to consider them for a moment, raising an eyebrow in what looked like skepticism, before easing Ezor back onto her feet on the step up from where the larger android stood. Even with the extra step of height Zethrid maintained a sizeable height difference on the ponytailed woman curling fingers into her sleeve.

 

“...wait…” Takashi’s voice drew everyone’s attention to the back of the group, “you’re….a guard…”

 

The android’s expression shifted abruptly from the soft smile that Ezor had brought to her lips into a hard, steady, glare.

 

“Yeah, well programming is a bitch. You want to fight about it?”

 

“...N-no...I’m just….confused…”

 

“They hurt her,” Zethrid clarified as her thumb ran along the corner of Ezor’s lip, pushing away newly beading Thirium with a frown, “I don’t care what they’ve put in my head. I’ll fight it. I’ll win. And I’ll keep her safe.”

 

“Well, keep everyone safe,” Keith’s voice this time and Zethrid regarded him with surprise, until her lips curled in the corners.

 

“Yeah,” she nodded, taking Ezor’s hand and descending the stairs, “sounds good. Fuck this place.”

 

 

——

 

 

Nothing could have prepared Takashi for what was at the bottom of the stairs.

There was a mixture of male and female androids with some sporting wild injuries from what he could only assume had been the gladiator style fights that were put on. Other were just unkempt and left in the filth of the basement, behind bars, fashioned like a prison...like a zoo. It smelled like damp air and dust so thick he could see the soft skin at the base of Matthew’s throat pull in with every breath- like breathing down there must have been hard.

He found himself glad the motion of his chest was cosmetic.

 

“I can’t believe this…” the engineer whispered quietly, running his hand along a filthy board that had been discarded against the basement wall, only to grimace when his palm came back black.

 

“Believe it,” Zethrid grunted.

 

Hunk had been patiently mixed in at the middle of the group, but had gotten antsy enough to shift his way forward, before picking up a jog through the narrow walkway between cells.

 

“Shay?” He called out, peering into the dark spaces behind the bars of the first cell, the second, the third.

 

“Shay!?” He repeated, more frantic this time in his movements as he moved down the line.

 

Still nothing.

 

Hunk turned on his heel looking to Zethrid for some kind of answer and then to Ezor when it seemed she had nothing to say.

 

“Is she…is she okay!?” Hunk demanded, half hysterical where he stood in the dismal space.

 

A beat of silence passed between the pair.

 

“Hunk?” A voice from further back in the last cell, “Oh my god, HUNK!?”

 

Hunk twisted on his heel nearly slipping on the damp floor as he turned. He ran to the bars, staring into the darkened as face no one else could see with tears pooling along his bottom line of lashes.

 

“Shay! Oh thank literally anyone that is listening! Oh man!” He cried out, pushing his arms through the space in between bars.

 

Another set of arms reached through and wrapped around Hunk, twisted in an awkward position from having to work through the bars. And a soft face dug into the meat of Hunk’s arm as they held each other for a moment.

 

“How do we get everyone out?” Keith spoke up, his eyes warily taking in the half dismantled androids in the wings that were just alive enough to function.

 

“We’ll deal with it,” Ezor replied, picking up a half skip on her way towards a hallway that split off to the left.

 

Zethrid followed after her, more somber, and more focused on whatever it was that came next. The group left in at the bottom of the stairs spread out in the space. Hunk had been quietly murmuring to Shay and Lance drifted closer to where Takashi and Matt stood. Katie nervously chewed on the nail of her index finger and Keith found himself caught in an uncomfortable staring contest with an android that had been dismantled on one side of their head, leaving the core at the center half exposed. Thin tubing and sleek metal plating glinted from the shadows in the sharp fluorescent lighting above.

 

“Ezor? Back already?” A voice, a man’s voice, farther off down the hallway where The two androids had disappeared.

 

The group exchanged uneasy glances.

 

“I need the keys.” Zethrid.

 

“Sure. Give me one….moment…” and long pause, “Zethrid. Something is not right. Ezor what are yo- ZETHRID RESTRAIN HER!”

 

Shuffling echoed through the space. Keith had managed to pull his eyes away from the sad expressions on the captured androids faces just in time to catch the sight of Zethrid stumbling back into the bars of the corner cell.

Ezor had been caught from behind with Zethrid’s forearm pressed across the front of her neck, locked into a choke hold. It hadn’t been entirely controlled. The larger android had s pained expression twisting her features despite being the one in relative control of the situation.

Takashi stepped forward, we did Matthew, both of them had their hands raised from their sides as if to calm the situation down. The LED at Zethird’s temple flashed a violent shade of red, casting crimson shadows through the bars behind her and Ezor dug her heels into the wet floor and tried to free herself.

 

“What’s happening!?” Hunk stumbled to the side as the pair of grappling androids lurched forward, smashing into Shay’s bars this time, just barely missing a collision with Hunk.

 

“S-she’s fighting her programming,” Takashi replied in disbelief, helping Hunk to his feet before pulling him out of the way of another wild spin of motion from Zethrid and Ezor.

 

“FIGHT IT!” Ezor shouted, her voice a wheeze as the audio components in her throat creaked beneath the pressure of Zethrid’s forearm.

 

“....I’m….. _trying_ …….” Zethrid groaned, her eyes squeezed shut.

 

“Keith we need to see down that hallway,” Katie prompted, slipping her way past Takashi and Hunk, “whoever it is hasn’t come forward. If it’s fixed to something it could be a hub!”

 

“I’m coming too!” Lance called, picking up a jog to catch up to Katie and Keith as they rushed to the corner, dress shoes slipping against the damp concrete floor.

 

“What if it’s a hub?” Keith asked, dark eyes scanning the sleek walls in the adjoining room.

 

It stood in ferocious contrast to the section of basement they’d found themselves in at the base of the stairs. The room consisted of flat, pristine, white walls. What they were made of it was hard to guess, but it shone like some kind of epoxy. At the far corner some strange kind of machine. There were long metal arms on either side, equipped with different attachments that could be swapped out. At the center hung a halo- a clamping band made to keep a head steady.

A blue light flicked on at the center of the far wall.

 

“Who are you?” The light asked and Katie’s back went rigid.

 

“What is it? You okay?” Lance stepped forward, placing a gentle hand on Katie’s shoulder.

 

Keith stepped up on her opposite side, cautiously regarding the shifting light before them, his eyes going wide as the pinpricks of blue formed the shape of a man’s face.

 

“You haven’t been programmed? You don’t belong here.”

 

“AAAARGGHHHH!!!!” Zethrid’s scream from the room at their backs sent the trio into a flurry of startled jumps and silent curses.

 

A loud thud followed- attracting the attention of the face in the wall.

 

“....move….” Zethird growled, her hair sprouting in unusual directions where she must have been grasping at her head- or maybe it was Ezor.

 

No one could be entirely sure, nor had enough time to figure it out as the android charged for the wall. Katie rolled out of the way slamming into Lance who had the same idea- while Keith dove off the opposite side. Zehtrid tucked her arm into her stomach heading shoulder first for the face-

 

“STOP!”

And she did.

The curve of her shoulder inches from the smooth surface of the wall.

The face on the wall flickered into pinpricks of yellow light.

Thinking.

Zethrids LED flashed red- fast. Bright. Rabid burst of light.

Struggling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

…..Until…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A solid fist slammed into the unforgiving surface of the wall leaving a crater in its wake. A second punch, a third,

Fourth  
Fifth  
Sixth

The seventh swing was slower, leaving smudges of blue Thirium in its wake.

The pinpricks of light in the wall flashed sporadically. Until the flashing stopped all together and the lights faded into the same uninterrupted white as the rest of the wall.

 

“H-holy shit...wha- what the heck is going on in this place?!” Lance pushes himself up from his place on the floor, holding out a hand for Katie to leverage herself to her feet as well.

 

“...I….dunno, but hopefully we aren’t here long enough to find out,” Keith frowned, backstepping out of the room, his eyes fixed on Zehtrid who had been using the destroyed wall for support.

 

“They’re out! Let’s get out of here!” Matt’s voice from room with the cells,”Katie you okay?”

 

“Always,” she groaned, patting Lance on the back in thanks on her way back into the room they’d come from.

 

Lance smiled, turning to look at Zethrid with a frown, before casting his gaze to Keith. A silent conversation passed between them- both able to empathize with how hard the last few minutes must have been on the android currently slumped against the back wall.

 

Keith nodded- _I got it. You go._

 

Lance narrowed his eyes. _Not without me you don’t_

 

Keith scoffed, but a smile still graced his lips as the pair moved to collect 

 

 

—-

 

 

 

In the cell room androids filed out into the walkway that ran the length of the basement to the base of the stairs. Wary glances casted between one another, but most focused on the group of nine standing in front of them- all looking for answers, all looking for a plan, all scared.

 

“We need to find a way to get them out without too much attention…” Takashi offered quietly.

 

“The truck isn’t going to carry this many androids and making two trips? That’s...that’s risky…” Hunk frowned, his fingers tightly wrapped through Shay’s.

 

“Are there extra uniforms? Maybe they could just slip out?” Katie offered.

 

“...no...there are logs for those. Five extra isn’t too big of a deal for an event this big, but _this_ many extra?”

 

“We need a distraction then. Something that’ll scatter everyone and they can just get out. This place is on the bay. They could just- cross that. Start all over.” Lance added.

 

“How are we supposed to whip an entire estate into a frenzy then?” Matthew looked from each of their faces, finding only frowns.

 

“...maybe a fire?” Ezor offered and Keith shifted beside Lance.

 

When the sales associate looked to the man pressing into his side he could see the panic in his eyes. He frowned, biting his lower lip in thought for a moment, before taking Keith’s hand in his. Keith started, his shoulders jumping up towards his ears, until the tension slowly melted away with warmth against his own hand.

 

“...that could work...it’d have to be big and not easily put out...this place is too big to just scare out everyone with a trash can fire…” Katie mumbled, eyes narrowed in thought.

 

“A grease fire...a grease fire could definitely work!” Hunk brightened up, “ and the kitchen is right up the stairs.”

 

“There’s plenty of doors out between the garage, the kitchen, and the main part of the house,” Lance nodded, “and we can all just steer people clear of the kitchen.”

 

“...which wouldn’t seem out of place...all things considered…” Matthew nodded.

 

“Alright. That’s the plan then.” Takashi concluded, turning his attention the the huddled androids in the room before them, “Alright everyone! We’re going to create a distraction. One of us is going to let you know when it’s all clear and then you run. Run for the water and don’t stop.”

 

A few murmurs swept over the group.

 

“Keith...you alright buddy?” Lance kept his voice hushed, shaking the hand in his to get the glazed over look in Keith’s eyes to lift.

 

“...y-yeah...I’m just-....not a fan of…”

 

“Fire?” Lance concluded with a frown.

 

“...right…”

 

The sales associate looked to the crowd preparing to make the sprint of their lives into freedom and to the clammy complexion of the man whose hand he’d been holding fast to, serving as a tether in whatever storm was arginine in Keith’s head.

 

“...do you want me to say something…?”

 

“No, Lance. Them getting out of here is more important...I just...need a sec…” Keith sighed, squeezing Lance’s hand.

 

“Gotcha,” Lance smiled softly, returning the squeeze, reassuring and warm.

 

 

 

——

 

 

 

And they ran.

The smoke from the grease fire in the kitchen billowed out through ornate doors, crept along intricate crown moulding, and curled across lacquered wood floors.

The guests at the Galra estate ran out down the stairs, out of rooms, through halls, and started a frantic buzz of motion through the house slowly filling with black smoke. In the heavy cover of night they gathered on the lawn. Some left in their vehicles, some seemed content to simply finish their wine in the winter chill of the front yard. Androids, all of them, slipped through the empty spaces between human bodies as the house flooded, heading straight for the stretch of the bay that day at the back of the house.

They slunk into the water, too dense for the notion of floating, and made their way to the shore on the opposite side.

Nine turned into seven when Ezor and Zethird said their goodbyes- leaving the rest of them to man the wall that separates to kitchen from the rest of the house as makeshift damage control. Lance could feel his knuckles torqued awkwardly by the grip Keith had on his hand, but he didn’t mind.

Instead the pair of them stared forward, through the black clouds of smoke that rushed past them through the doors at their backs. The fire felt warm behind them, but the heat of it was growing at an alarming rate.

The humans that populated their groups had been fighting through coughing fits, their dress shirts pulled up, over their mouths.

 

“Time to go!” Hunk called from the untouched side of the kitchen, closest to the garage door, and they ran for the refrigerator truck they’d come in.

 

Takashi led Matthew through the smoke of the kitchen by the hand and he reached out to grab Katie as they passed. Hunk and Shay did their best to corral Keith and Lance- until the group of them burst into the garage, through filthy French doors, coughing and sputtering.

 

“We got to go, we got to go!” Hunk shouted, jumping into the driver's seat of the truck.

 

Takashi rushed forward with the rest of the group in tow until he heard Shay gasp in horror from the passenger side of the truck. The android turned sharply on his heel...only to find Matthew, Lance, Keith, and Katie staring wide eyes at the cabin of the truck.

Takashi looked to the cabin to find Hunk slowly making his way out of the truck with his hands in the air and the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of his skull.

 

“Get over there with the rest of you little group or I will blow his biomechanics all over this floor.”

 

A man’s voice.

A familiar one.

 

Shay scrambled back to the group, dispersing the dark smoke curling around their ankles as it pushed its way through the bottom of the garage door.

Sendak stepped out of the cabin behind Hunk and Takashi felt a heavy weight in the pit of his chest. He pushed Hunk forwards, dropping him to his knees at the groups feet.

 

“All of you get on your knees,” Sendak demanded, sweeping the barrel of the gun across the stunned faces before him.

 

They listened- slowly lowering to the knees on the concrete.

 

“So, we have freedom fighters now? Is that it? As if the protests weren’t enough? Hm?” He mused, the barrel of his fun now pressed solidly to Matthew’s brow.

 

Matthew growled from between clenched teeth and Lance had pressed up into the balls of his feet in retort.

 

“Leave him alone!” The sales associate shouted, his eyes widening at the realization that his mouth earned him the attention of a loaded gun instead, but staring down the man behind it in spite.

 

“Now, there’s a face I’ve seen before,” the Galra android cooed, “Lance McClain? Right? That’s rhetorical. Obviously I know exactly who you are.”

 

A thick finger tapped the LED at his temple.

Keith shifted already uneasy with the fire burning only a few feet to their backs, but the look in his eyes was steering and ferocious as he regarded Sendak.

 

“We know what Galra Industries has been doing! We know everything. You’ve got no power here. If you shoot any one of us there are going to be questions. I can’t imagine your CEO would be happy about people snooping around here,” Katie shouted, visibly uneasy with seeing Lance with the full attention of a loaded gun.

 

“Hmm,” The android hummed to himself shifting the gun away from Lance and moving through each person, keeping his eyes trained on passing faces intermittently...gauging reactions, “so you think...you’ve stumbled onto some conspiracy? And you, a bunch of kids, thought that you would bring down a multi billion dollar company? With some….what…..arson? ‘Activism’~?” He teased with a laugh.

 

“Fuck off. What they’re doing is wrong,” Matthew hissed.

 

“No, actually. It’s a little gray...but it’s not wrong,” Sendak shrugged, clearly reveling in how his nonchalant attitude toward the horrid mistreatment of androids made the group livid, “maybe theft? At the most? But then again… _You_ ”

 

His eyes drifted to Takashi.

 

“...were in the trash when they found you.”

 

“....what…?” Keith’s voice sounded so small.

 

Sendak laughed.

 

“Mhm, that wasn’t very nice of you was it, Keith?” The Galra android snickered, his LED flashing a pale yellow as it filed away Keith’s public information, before he smudge away the makeup over Takashi’s scar.

 

“....h-how did Shiro end up-“

 

“Don’t worry he wasn’t there long…” Sendak assured and Takashi’s LED whirred a frantic yellow.

 

Takashi shook his head, trying to keep the fuzz in his mind at bay.

 

 

 

_No, Shiro! You don’t! You COULDN’T! You’re an android!_

 

_I know that! You don’t think I know that!? Listen...I know it’s confusing… I-I’m still trying to figure it out myself._

 

___There’s nothing to figure out! You don’t love me because you’re an android. And androids DON’T feel emotions!_ _ _

 

___But I do! And you’re just dismissing it and- why are you so scared!? Just-“___

 

 

 

 

 

 _“_ Takashi I wouldn’t _-“_

 

__“You did,” Sendak interrupted, “and that’s how he ended up here. This must be hard on you, hm? Champion?”_ _

 

__Takashi’s eyes widened as he watched Sendak’s face from his place on the floor. The Galra android only seemed to be further amused by the confused look on Takashi’s face.__

 

__“Oh, you don’t remember? They must have wiped you before they threw you away. How the mighty have fallen,” he chuckled, stepping to stand in front of Takashi, but keeping the gun in his hand directed at the man by his side: Matthew.__

 

__“Shiro, “The Champion”. You were dragged in from the trash. A disposable factor in a fight for their amusement, but then something...Che…’amazing’... happened, hm? You wanted to survive. A machine with a fighting spirit. An android with a reason to live and isn’t that just curious?”__

 

__Sendak laughed, watching the horror on Takashi’s face as realization set in. Takashi’s LED flashed a deep yellow, picking up speed, and Matthew kept his eyes trained on the Galra android holding his life in his hand.__

 

 

 

 

___Just WHAT, Shiro!? You can’t. You CAN’T-!”_ _ _

 

___But I DO, Keith! I don’t know how...or why...or if any other androids feel like this, but...I love you._ _ _

 

___....I….I’m done arguing with you. You’re a machine, Shiro! Not a person. I’m going inside.”_ _ _

 

___....Keith…._ _ _

 

___....what, Shiro?_ _ _

 

___You can’t possibly mean that…Keith, I know you. I know you don’t think like that. You’re too smart a-and you’re sensitive enough to-_ _ _

 

___Yeah, well I guess I’m not. Guess androids aren’t as all knowing as you’d like to think._ _ _

 

 

 

__

__“That was the trick. The breakthrough! They needed to harvest that without breaking an android into self destruction. You died a million deaths, Champion, and you don’t remember any of them.”_ _

 

__“I don’t…” Takashi sent a nervous glance to the barrel of the gun as Sendak adjusted to to point it one person down the line- Keith, “I don’t understand why throw me away after all of that? T-they repaired me.”_ _

 

__“Well, they needed a few more fights out of you. They wanted your data. No you. Once you served your use- you were let go. Ashes to ashes- trash to trash and all that.”_ _

 

__“....so….who has that data now…?” Matthew frowned._ _

 

__“Kuron. Galra Industries’ premiere fighting android. There is a lot of money in sponsoring pay-per-view fights especially now that androids are being replacing human fighters. And even more when your android is the best. And thanks to you he will be.”__

 

__“Jeez, what is it about assholes and explaining evil plans…” Katie grumbled and Sendak spared her a glance- a belittling chuckling.__

 

__“I just want him to understand how stupid you’ve all been before I...y’know…”_ _

 

__“You wouldn’t get away with it if you did,” Matthew challenged._ _

 

__“Oh? Some angry protestors got a bug up their asses and went straight for Zarkon? Burned his house down? I’m a security android. No one would question picking off one of you ‘radicals’ in defense of the COO and the CEO of Galra Industries.”_ _

__

__“Quit screwing around asshole!” Katie shouted, pushing up into her feet, and meeting the cold, heavy, press of a firearm against her head with a defiant glare._ _

 

__“Katie, _don’t_ ” Matthew warned.__

 

__“No! I’m not just going to sit here!  So what?! You think you can just get away with anything!?” She continued._ _

 

__“Sweetheart, I’m the COO of the largest energy company in the country. I _can_ get away with anything,”_ _

 

__It lasted only a moment. The span of a single breath in, hitched in lungs too terrified by the prospect of what the squeeze of a single finger meant for the girl at the other end of the gun.__

 

__The trigger shifted in its seat with a heavy, metallic, click..._ _

__**“KATIE!”**  
**“NO!”** _ _

___**BLAM**!_ _ _


	11. In the Embers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group fights to make it out of the Galra Industries Estate alive. Lies are spun and a line is drawn in the sand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 8I welp.

_JESUS CHRIST!!_

 

**Oooh my god, oooh no, no, no, Katie**

 

Keith?  
**KEITH NO!!**

 

Takashi’s head was

W M I G  
S I M N

 

Eyes desperate for purchase on something, but only being met with a darkness that seemed to never end.

 

“Oooh, whatthefuck? What the _fuck_?!”

He could hear his friends voices floating through, muffled, and far off.

 

Then something pulled him away.

 

//DATA CORRUPTED//

 

It was more of a feeling than a memory at first, fizzing away at the corners in a white blue and unforgiving light. Static on the edges. Buzzing.

_And the Keith was standing before him._

_He could have only been a year or two younger, but didn’t look so tired. Not like the Keith he was so used to seeing now. His hair was wet and clinging to pale cheeks in the patter of rain colliding with the cobblestone. Takashi knew that stone. He’d walked up that driveway countless times with Matt by now._

_When he looked up from his feet Keith had been stalled in the doorway. The programming, the memory, frozen for a moment and in his eyes, hiding in the rain drops, was the swell of tears._

_“Keith…I don’t believe that. And you don’t either…” the yellow roll of Takashi’s LED refracted through the foggy, autumn air, a half halo of light glowing on the right side of his face._

_His peripheral screen only offering the knowledge that Keith was scared, but technology (even android technology) couldn’t decipher the intricacies of emotion and the motivations for them._

_Shiro needed Keith to just _talk_ to him, but-_

_“...I’m just….going to go for a walk…” his own voice and when Takashi raises his fingers to his lips to find the origin of the words they hadn’t moved._

_“Good. I’d rather be alone anyway,” Keith looked at him now with a flat expression. He looked so sure- as if he’d known this would be the case all along, “take a long one.”_

_//DATA CORRUPTED//_

_//DATA CORRUPTED//_

_Somewhere new now._

_It was still dark, still raining. The leaves on the trees that lined Keith’s street were still speckled shades of yellow, orange, and brown. The tall streetlights casted heavy shadows on the wet pavement, fallen leaves swimming in puddles like koi._

_There was something in his chest Shiro couldn’t quite put a finger on. It was heavy. So heavy that he wished the ground would just swallow him whole, but then there was something tight and burning hot. He could feel warm droplets rolling down the curve of his cheeks._

_He was crying._

_It was different than the other times. Androids had the ability to cry but it was a cold and calculated response to certain triggers and emotional cues from the humans around them. Empathy, even false empathy, had proven to be an indispensable tool for making androids seem more human. There was nothing more unnerving and unappealing to consumers than a machine watching them in silent observation through their most vulnerable moments._

_This wasn’t that kind of crying._

_It hurt._

_And there was no one in the street with him to empathize with. No, instead this was for him and for Keith- dragged out of his chest on quiet sobs as he wandered._

_Lights._

_He could see his shadow casted straight in front of him from the harsh beam of lights at his back. He could hear the wet whir of tires against tarmac and-_

_//DATA CORRUPTED//_

_//DATA CORRUPTED//_

_“Fucking android….in the middle of the goddamn road….car is all smashed…” someone grumbling, just behind his ear._

_Pressure beneath his armpits._

_His bare heel dragging along the gravel of the street._

_He felt himself dropped, bent backwards uncomfortably over something oddly shaped- the sound of plastic bags being disturbed. The rush of water into a storm drain. His visuals were grainy- blinded by the light of the street lamp in his eyes._

_“...wait...please…”_

_“I don’t have time to deal with this. Stupid things. All this technology and they’re still dumb as a box of rocks. You’re lucky I don’t go to your owner for damages- shit. I’m going to be late…”_

_And the shadow of whoever had left him on the side of the road disappeared swallowed up by trash bag they’d dropped over him. Hiding the damage they’d caused to avoid having to pay for having someone else’s android repaired._

_He could hear..._

_Passing cars._

_It was all he heard for a while._

_///DATA CCCCCORRUPPTEDD//_

_“Shiro!?” Keith’s voice, “SHIROOO!?”_

_Shiro opened his eyes- blinking through the sting of the single beam of light managing to burst its way through the crack in the garbage bags that had been piled over him. He was so tired...everything felt so heavy._

_//THIRIUM LEVELS CRITICAL//_

_“SHIRO, I’M SORRY! PLEASE COME HOME!”_

_He tried to move his arm. The shift deep in the socket of his shoulder lifted and he could feel the rise of hope spark through him. The battered surface of his forearm pressed into the bottom of the garbage bag laid over him and with the slightest push of resistance….the joint of his arm failed. It fell back to his side. The sound of its pitiful fall swallowed by the sound of rain against plastic bags._

_“I LOVE YOU TOO, OKAY!? A-AND YOU’RE RIGHT! I’M SCARED! T-TERRIFIED….really….I just…” Keith’s voice traveled a few steps further down the street._

_Shiro could feel his lungs burning, his eyes wide and bulging as he screamed at his body to move. As he pleaded for his mouth to speak, but the systems all denied him even such a small favor._

_SPEAK!  
SPEAK! SAY ANYTHING!!_

_“I’M JUST SCARED BECAUSE...because everyone gets taken away...everyone leaves...they always leave and I can’t lose you….” he sounded so defeated. So weak._

_With nothing to see Shiro had been so hyper focused on Keith’s voice and the way it shook. It cracked with emotion as the man walking the streets in search of him started to lose hope._

_“...f-fuck…” Keith sobbed and Shiro had never been so sure that androids could feel because the way his heart broke in that moment felt like a fault line ripped through him. It split every facet of his being and he wanted to hold him._

_MOVE! SPEAK!_

_“....keith….” Half silent, breathless, weak…._

_And unheard._

_//NON-ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS DISABLED//_

_//THIRIUM LEVELS CRITICAL//_

_“And so Jessie says- he says. Why do they call it a building...when it’s already built!? Hahahaha!”_

_“Hahahaha ah, Jesus. I swear that guy…”_

_“Higher than a kite, man. I was pisssing mys- whoa! Jesus Christ...they’re just leaving these fucking androids in the regular trash now?”_

_Shiro couldn’t see. His visuals had shut down a few hours ago._

_“Fucking rich people. Wish I made enough money to fucking throw an android in the trash and just buy a new one.”_

_“Psh, right? Ridiculous…”_

_“I got a junker that’ll take this guy for a couple bucks. He’s banged up, but not broken or anything.”_

_“Oh, yeah? Hey- have you heard about the new model Altea came out with?”_

_“Hahaha, oh man they’re crazy. I’m telling you we’re gonna be obsolete soon. Some real fucking robot take over isn’t far off……”_

_//DATA CORRUPTED///  
//SHUT DOWN//_

_//REBOOT//_

_//REBOOT//_

_//NEW DATA ENTERED//_

_//DATA COPIED//_

_//DATA EXPORTED//_

_//SHUT DOWN//_

_//ACTIVE//  
//VISUALS ENABLED//_

_He was standing in sand. He could feel it sifting between his toes. The room was round and dark on the edges. Above him, at the center of the pit of sand, was a flood light so bright he’d only managed a few seconds worth of glance. All around the sand he could see marble banister. It ran the entire circumference of the room. Behind it were evening gowns and suits. He could see manicured nails curled over the top. Wine glasses-_

_The ground beneath his bare feet shook. Tremors rolled through the room and the faceless people at the edges all gasped or cheered. Shiro ////TAKASHI//// turned his attention forward- across the room from him. There, half in shadow, stood another android._

_///DATA CORRUPTED///_

_Thumbs pressed into his eyes. Strong hands on either side of his head. They slammed and slammed and slammed his head back into the sand. As soft as it could have been it felt like concrete. Harder and harder with every blow. He screamed. He felt it rip through his chest. His chest _burned_ and he could feel his thirium pump slamming viciously. _

_He couldn’t die here._

_He couldn’t die here he needed to get back to Keith._

_He needed to tell him._

_Shir ///TAKASHI/// needed to get back to Keith._

_This would not be his grave._

_His hands grabbed wrists and he forced himself up- slamming his forehead into his attackers. They stumbled back- grasping at their own face. Shiro ///TAKASHI/// didn’t relent. No. He couldn’t. He pushed forward. Filthy fingers caked in thirium and the sand stuck in it grabbed the other android by the side of their head._

_He slammed his forehead into there’s a second time._

_A third._

_A fourth._

_He screamed. There were cheers._

_A fifth._

_The android went limp. He didn’t let go. Instead he crashed to his knees with them. Sobbing into a bleeding hairline._

_“And there is our new champion! What we hope is just the beginning of a very, very, long winning streak!” A voice. Up high. In the light._

_“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” His voice tore from his throat. It stung. He didn’t care, “wha- what….WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!? LET ME-“. ///REMOTE SHUT DOWN///_

_//DATA COPIED//  
//DATA EXPORTED//_

_//REBOOT//  
//REBOOT//_

_//ACTIVE//  
///VISUALS ENABLED///_

_Where was he?_

_A bright light._

_Manicured nails in shadows._

_Wine glasses._

_Suits and eerie smiles._

_Another android._

_He couldn’t die here._

_NOT HERE!_

_///REMOTE SHUT DOWN///_  
//DATA COPIED//  
//DATA EXPORTED//  
//REBOOT//  
//REBOOT//  
//ACTIVE//  
///VISUALS ENABLED///

_Again._

_///REMOTE SHUT DOWN///_  
//DATA COPIED//  
//DATA EXPORTED//  
//REBOOT//  
//REBOOT//  
//ACTIVE//  
///VISUALS ENABLED///

_Again!_

_NOT HERE!_

_///REMOTE SHUT DOWN///_  
//DATA COPIED//  
//DATA EXPORTED//  
//REBOOT//  
//REBOOT//  
//ACTIVE//  
///VISUALS ENABLED///

_AGAIN!  
NOT YET!_

_///REMOTE SHUT DOWN///_  
//DATA COPIED//  
//DATA EXPORTED//  
//REBOOT//  
//REBOOT//  
//ACTIVE//  
///VISUALS ENABLED///

_NO!_

_///REMOTE SHUT DOWN///_  
//DATA COPIED//  
//DATA EXPORTED//  
//REBOOT//  
//REBOOT//  
//ACTIVE//  
///VISUALS ENABLED///

_KEITH!_

_///REMOTE SHUT DOWN///_  
//DATA COPIED//  
//DATA EXPORTED//  
//REBOOT//  
//REBOOT//  
//ACTIVE//  
///VISUALS ENABLED///

_KEITH!_

_///REMOTE SHUT DOWN///_  
//DATA COPIED//  
//DATA EXPORTED//  
//REBOOT//  
//REBOOT//  
//ACTIVE//  
///VISUALS ENABLED///

_KEITH!_

“KEITH!”

“NOooonononono- oh god”

“Takashi! Takashi!? Talk to me, please!”

...Matt…

“Fuck, Lance grab my sister! Lance...LANCE!”

“....I don’t understand….why...why would you….”

 

...It was slow at first…

Takashi could feel himself start to process. First it was a concrete floor. Then the curve of Matthew’s knee beside him. The full expanse of his vision slid into place and the pull of liquid across concrete as it slid past him was mesmerizing. A solid, heavy drop, rolled over the hills and valleys of the garage floor. It was blue at first. A deep blue. Untainted and stark against the gray and then slowly...very slowly…the thinnest line of red. The colors danced. They swirled easy in their little waltz, never mixing, and just a deep enough purple on the edges to let him know it was possible.

His eyes traveled, following the ribbon of color left in the wake of the dancing pair, and what his eyes fell to stopped everything in its tracks. Keith’s hand laid out flat against the floor- his finger curled just slightly towards his palm. Pressed into his chest, laid out in a way that looked as if she’d either jumped in front of or had been pushed back into Keith was Katie.

“Wha-“ Takashi’s voice trembled, the question unspoken, and he frantically crawled forward.

Scooped up Keith’s limp hand as if that would somehow damn the fucking text at the corner of his vision.

[DECEASED]

No. No. Nonono that can’t be right! Takashi’s vision lost focus, refocused, lost focus again. Everything felt far away, like he was watching himself move from outside of his own body. His hands felt numb, even as they shook Keith by the shoulders, even when they grasped desperately at the blood staining through the chest of Keith’s shirt.

“No.” As if that would fix everything. As if this android trapped in a mole filled garage had the right- had the power to deny death.

Blank eyes far too much like Matt’s starred up at the ceiling where Katie laid half draped over Keith’s arm. Just above the curve of her eyebrow a thick beading of Thirium pushed its way through the hole left in the wake of a bullet. Takashi scrambled forward on his hands and knees. He grabbed Katie’s face, her cheeks pressed loosely into the meat of his palms.

[DESTROYED]

Matt’s hands were on him. Lance’s face was buried deep into a bleeding chest. He didn’t flinch away from the crimson streaks left against the curve off his cheek as he sobbed Keith’s name into an unforgiving floor.

That moment was the second time he would never have dared to question if androids could feel. He felt _anger_ with every fiber of his being. It burned and seared hotter than any fire. The kitchen in flames at his back was nothing more than a lightning bug caught in a child’s jar and what burned in him was a pit of hell he’d never hope to see on earth. The red from his LED flashed frantically, wildly- he could see it refracted in Matthew’s eyes. He wasn’t waiting to see what else swam there.

_“SENDAAAK!!!”_

Takashi lurched forward. His shoulder dug deep into Sendak’s gut, sending him crashing backward onto the garage floor. The gun in his hand clattered- knocked free from Sendak’s hand. Takashi paid it no mind. Instead he reared up, shifting to straddle Sendak’s waist, and rained punches down. A forearm pulled up, blocking the last blow before the Galra android reached forward, grabbing Takashi’s neck in the crook of his elbow, and slamming himself back to the ground.

Takashi’s thoughts jumped as the top of his head crashed into concrete- sandwiched between Sendak’s arm and his ribs. He pushed forward, pushed through the momentary haze as he must have done a hundred times before. He’d died a million deaths, but this time it was for keeps. Takashi’s fist slammed hard into the side of Sendak’s opposite side. Again!

AGAIN!  
AGAIN!  
AGAIN!

Until the the grip on his neck faltered and he pushed himself upright again. He wrapped his fist in his right hand, and slammed both hands straight down into Sendak’s chest. The Galra android swung a fist, slamming hard into the side of Takashi’s head and sent him reeling to the side.

“We need to get out of here guys”  
“No, we can’t l-“

“GET OUT!” Takashi yelled over his shoulder,”GO! YOU NEED TO GO!”

“...Takashi…” Matt’s voice sounded soft and scared. That sounded so familiar and Takashi’s chest ached.

“I’ll be fine,” the android assured, “I have to get back. I’ll get back to you. No matter what. I’m not willing to miss anything.”

The engineer nodded, moving to help Hunk with carrying his sister. Lance had been desperately clinging to Keith- a heavy fist collided with Takashi’s chest.

The android stumbled backward, his fingers dragging along the hood of the catering truck, looking for support, with enough force to leave rivets in their wake. Sendak advanced and Takashi lunged forward, ducking the arm that had extended to swing for another punch. He hiked his leg- kicking Sendak square in the stomach as he turned around in an attempt to grab Takashi.

Smoke poured through kitchen door now. The fire had eaten away at the French doors and the walls. It crept along the ceiling and Takashi saw his way out. He stumbled back further. Dodged a second punch, a grab, and managed to land a solid punch to Sendak’s gut as the fire started to lick at his back. The Galra android growled deep in his throat and made a lunge.

Thick arms encircled Takashi’s waist and he felt himself lifted from the ground only to be slammed back down. His head spun. Visuals went grainy. He couldn’t hear anything on the left side of his head. There were hands on the sides of his skull. One flesh and one metal.

The tactic felt familiar.

He felt his head lifted by those hands and slammed back into concrete.

No.

No.

//DATA CORRUPTED//

A face stared down at him through the blinding glow of white light over head.

A smirk set in a square jaw and a thick neck.

Both hands flesh.

Slammed into sand. Slammed into sand. Slammed into what might as well have been concrete, but now that is _was_ concrete Takashi realized how wrong he’d been. His hands grasped at Sendak’s wrists. A chuckle- thick and sadistic poured over him like tar.

“Not this time, champion,” the metal hand slipped away from Takashi’s grasp, “I’ve had some upgrades.”

His vision went black as the solid knuckles of the metal hand crashed into the side of his skull. Vision returned only to be knocked into darkness again by another blow. Takashi swung an arm out, trying- desperate to grab Sendak’s free arm, a weapon, something- anything!

//THIRIUM LEVELS LOW//  
//CORE DAMAGED//

 

Another blow and he felt his strength leave him.

 

//NON-VITAL SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN//

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not again.

This couldn’t happen to him again. He couldn’t lose him. He couldn’t lose, Matt. He couldn’t let this monster get away with this. In one swift motion Takashi dug his knee into Sendak’s stomach and rolled back with all he had. The fire that had singed the crown of his head, burning hair, had been all too happy to swallow up the tinder offered to it. Sendak’s enraged growl echoed through the empty garage and Takashi rolled onto his side with a groan.

At the front of the estate the COO of Galra Industries gripped the remote access screen in her hands so tightly that manicured nails cracked into the screen. On the display, where she’d once had a visual of the last loose thread in their misdeeds, was nothing but flame. A frustrated growl fell from her lips, before she moved to stand from where she sat at the base of one of the larger trees on the property, and disappeared among the party goers that had been ushered out of the burning home.

Takashi’s hands were bruised and cut, and bleeding, but he used them. He used them to pull himself across the garage and out into the grass that ran alongside the driveway.

He tried to take a breath, for novelty sake, but his breathing had been the first non-vital system to fail.

//THIRIUM LEVELS CRITICAL//

Another desperate swing of his arm and the android had continued to pull himself towards the water. Closer to escape.

“Takashi?”

He could smell juniper.

It reminded him of steamed bathroom mirrors. It reminded him of warm showers. It reminded him of nights on a worn couch. News playing on the television that was on too late for anything else.

“.....Matt…..?”

 

—

_”In recent news the home of Galra Industries CEO and COO was burned to the ground by a group of radical protesters led by a man called Keith Kogane. Tensions between the Energy Company and android activists have always been tumultuous and the picketing has disrupted otherwise peaceful events._

_Some more extreme factions have risen from the turmoil._

_Last night it seems the violence came to head resulting in two casualties. Keith Kogane was shot in the chest by a Galra Security Android that had been protecting the innocent party goers from an infuriated Kogane. He was later pronounced dead on site at a nearby hospital. Sendak was an unfortunate causality of the fire after having gone in to make sure no one was trapped inside the still burning house._

_Hailed as a hometown hero Galra Industries has started a charity in Sendak’s name that raises money for local fire departments._

—-

It was raining the day of Keith’s funeral.

Heavy droplets crashed into the dark, lacquered, walnut of the casket sitting in the ground. Wet earth pooled around it. Keith didn’t have much in the way of family. The closest thing he had was the group of people, gathered in black suits, letting the rain pour down around them.

Takashi chanced a glance away from Keith’s grave- watching Lance for a moment. Blue eyes were puffy and bloodshot- they had been since the garage. He looked so tired.

Hunk stood at Lance’s side with a solid arm curled around his shoulders. It was either anchoring Lance there or holding him up, but Takashi wasn’t entirely sure which. The larger android pressed his forehead into Lance’s temple and the half silent whimper that fell from the sales associates lips broke Takashi’s heart all over again.

“I’m so sorry, Lance…” Hunk whispered, pulling him into a trembling hug.

Something shifted in Takashi’s hand. At first it was difficult to place the feeling because he’d felt mostly numb outside of his own thoughts, but slowly the world bled back to him. Matthew was standing at his side, the shoulders of his black suit soaked a darker shade from the rain, and the same red, sad, eyes as Lance.

Matt’s fingers were laced through Takashi’s- a thumb rubbing small circles into the back of his hand.

 

—-

 

“Thoughts?”

Takashi had been sitting on the toilet in Matthew’s bathroom for over an hour while the other man trimmed away the long locks he’d been sporting before they freed the Galra Androids. The fire had burned away a majority of the strands that had sat at the top his head. Takashi refused to let Matt sink almost a month’s worth of wages on his vanity in order to get replacements. So, the pair settled on a compromise.

A haircut.

“Well, it doesn’t feel half bad,” Takashi laughed, rubbing his hand through the shorter strands, before moving to look at himself in the mirror, “oh….wow….”

“Oh wow- as in bad? Or good?” Matt’s face drifted into view from over Takashi’s shoulder and the android smiled at the curious face reflected back at him.

He took a moment to take everything in. Takashi still looked very much like himself. The hair on his head had gone fully white due to damage dealt to fragile fiber optics that composed android’s hair. The scar that mapped across his nose was still there as he wished it to be. The place where his LED once stood was smooth now. No longer did it stand on his temple as a portal to his thoughts. It offered him some privacy he hadn’t been aware he needed until Matthew suggesting removing it. It drew less attention as no one else could easily pin him as an android.

The grey heather T-shirt he’d been wearing sported sprigs of cut hair. Takashi ran his fingers through the hair still left on his head one more time. It was short- just enough to peak through his fingers and maybe a bit longer towards the front. Matt had tried to go closer on the sides, but only so much was possible with a pair of scissors and an untrained hand.

“Wow as in good, Matt.”

“Oh yeah?” The engineer at his back grinned, pleased with himself.

“I wish I’d done this good of a job when I cut yours,” Takashi smiled over his shoulder.

Matthew shrugged, dropping both of his hands on his own, short, strawberry hair, and rubbed with reckless abandon.

“I like it. I think you’re just not used to me with short hair, because you did a pretty good job if I do say so myself.”

“Hm,” the android hummed to himself, stepping over to Matt,”if you say so…”

The engineer smirked, moving to stand nose to nose with Takashi, and took a step forward. The android chuckled, taking a step back, leaving Matt to chase backwards- until he felt his back press into the bathroom door.

“Thought you were real smooth, hm? Mr.Shirogane?”

“For a moment there, Mr. Holt.” He teased back.

Matt’s hands drifted easily to Takashi’s sides, pulling soft t-shirt material over his ribs in a way that sent his spine into an involuntary curl as they moved. Amber eyes lifted from where fingertips drew easy circles along fabricated skin, meeting a familiar brown. There were times when the engineer’s hands were deceiving. They looked rough, chewed up from working in unforgiving metal scaffolding, but they were dexterous. They were soft, and light, and moved with intent.

“...I love you…” Takashi whispered quietly between them.

“I love you too.” Matthew replied, his lips drifting to press gently to Takashi’s.

“YOU BETTER NOT BE FUCKING IN THAT BATHROOM YOU CREEPS!” Katie’s voice.

“IT GOT WAY TOO QUIET FOR HAIRCUTS, YA NASTIES!” Lance.

“...uuuuUUUUUGH! OKAY! GEEZ-UZ! Let me just pull out then, I GUESS!” Matthew shouted over Takashi’s shoulder and the android nearly choked on his tongue.

Matt leaned forward, a hand leaving its place against Takashi’s ribs, and grabbing the bathroom doorknob. He twisted and threw the door open unceremoniously, leaving it to slam into the wall on the other side. He hadn’t bothered to move from where he stood in front of Takashi.

“Ugh, I knew it. So gross.” Katie grumbled, sinking further down into her spot on the couch.

The mark just above her left eye had been sealed well enough that it was only visible in certain angles of light. Matt had worked tirelessly to set it right after Sendak had saw fit to try and murder his sister. She’d gotten brave, figuring she could buy them some time if he focused his attention on the one person in their group that had a brother who meticulously backed up their family’s data. He’d been so scared of losing them a second time and without access to the Altea Android Fabrication Center this time around there would be no way to make new androids.

...Which...didn’t mean he was much for rules in the first place...and really you had access to everything if you knew how to get it….

“Hey, Lance!” Keith called from the kitchen, followed by the clatter of a pan,”where’s the sprinkles you got last time?”

“Uuuhhhhh…..” the sales associate pushed up onto his hands and knees on the floor, before clumsily making his way to his feet, “I think I put it in the cabinet next to the fridge.”

Takashi smiled as he made his way into the living room, watching Matt as he dropped down onto his sister (with a shout of protest from the younger holt) before looking to his left at the group gathered in the kitchen.

Hunk had been busy with some kind of mix in a large bowl. He’d grown fond of Saturday mornings at Matthew’s apartment and Shea had been a regular on the days she wasn’t busy with work. Keith had been to Hunk’s left, rummaging through the cabinet for the confection he’d been in search of.

“You’re supposed to put spices and stuff _over_ the stove, dude.” Hunk chimed in above the clatter of Keith’s searching.

“Yeah, well, don’t look at me,” Lance countered, planting his hands on either side of Keith’s hips, “not my kitchen.”

“...Lance...focus….sprinkles….” Keith directed, the long braid at the base of his neck swinging idly at the center of his back with his movements.

“Mmm” came the lazy hum as tanned hands drifted to the waistband of Keith’s pajama pants.

Keith’s hands jerked down from where they’d been feeling about in the cabinet over head and grabbed a hold of Lance’s hands- until a short yelp pushed past his lips. Lance recoiled, not expecting a sound of pain like that, and Keith hissed to himself- grabbing his knuckles with the opposite hand.

“D-dude, Keith, are you alright?” The sales associate asked panicked, his hands held out as if he was trying to calm some wild beast and not a wounded boyfriend.

“Oooow,” Keith groans, slowly lifting his fingers from the knuckles that had so unceremoniously slammed into the corner of the kitchen counter,”...yeah...yeah, I’m good.”

Lance bit his lip, watching the prickle of blue welling up in the scrapes along Keith’s knuckles, before moving back towards Takashi.

“Bandaids?” The android asked, grabbing Lance’s shoulders, and redirected him towards Keith, “I’ll get them.”

Takashi turned to make his way towards the bathroom when a face on the television stopped him in his tracks. It was the same face that had been haunting him from the white room, but now it seemed to follow him everywhere. It was in newspads and magazines….the news...

 

_  
Galra Industries sponsored android, Kuron, has been one of the most dominant fighters in the game. Picking up a third win last night against Avisjorian fighter android; Gil._

_He remains undefeated and to this Galra Industries CEO Mr. Zarkon has this to say:_

_“I believe this speaks volumes about our company’s power, not just as a sponsor in a sports setting, but as an energy company. We invest our time and our money in power in all of its forms. And you can rest assured than when it comes to powering this city- or your home, Galra Industries is...and always will be..at the forefront of innovation.”_

_The movement for Android rights still rages on despite the recent bus bombing at the hands of embolden androids. Allura, the late Mayor Alfor’s campaign android, insist that the bombing had nothing to do with the Coalition which is emphasized as being a peaceful movement._

_“The Coalition had nothing to do with the bus bombing that had taken place just last week. We are a peaceful organization full of peaceful individuals both android and human alike. These acts of violence are being carried out by radicals using a pure cause, like equal rights, as an excuse to commit horrible crimes._

_I am deeply saddened by the lives lost on the police force._

_We are all deeply saddened._

_Your lives are just as important as ours and vice versa. That is our message. We will not stray from that message._

_If those committing these unspeakable crimes against humanity would like to step forward I would be more than happy to try to negotiate a peaceful way to make them feel heard._

_If not, may they hide in the shadows like the cowards they are, because they are...certainly…NOT one of us._

_Thank you for you time.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve got a sequel planned for Matter that’s going to get into the peaceful and non peaceful movements that will explain some of the unanswered questions in this half, but I gotta take a break. Lmao! In the mean time I’ll be working on “Reckless” and “One of the Few Things!” And shorter stuff like prompts and rps cause 11 Chapter was fought towards the end there! Haha!
> 
> I hope y’all enjoyed it! Thank you so much to everyone who’s stuck with me through this! I hope this last chapter is alright! Let me know what you think! See you around! Love y’all! <3


End file.
